Noted Russian journalist Dmitry Tsilikin has been found stabbed to death in his flat in St Petersburg.

Mr Tsilikin, 54, was found on Thursday evening after friends and family had been unable to contact him. His mobile phone and computer are missing. Police have opened a murder inquiry.

Mr Tsilikin was a well-known culture and arts critic, working on TV and radio as well as for print media such as Kommersant, Vogue and Elle. Mr Tsilikin had reportedly just returned from a trip to the Latvian capital, Riga. Friends and family last spoke to him at the end of last week.

Mr Tsilikin was found with multiple knife wounds and it is believed he may have been dead for at least two days.

The Russian Investigative Committee said a forensic investigation was being carried out and it had not ruled out “murder committed on domestic grounds”. St Petersburg Union of Journalists chairwoman Lyudmila Fomichev told Kommersant: “This is a great tragedy for the entire journalistic community, because he was a very well-known, great journalist who wrote on culture and art.”

Mr Tsilikin, a graduate of the Leningrad State Institute of Music and Cinema, turned to journalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, working for the newspaper Rush Hour and editing Culture and Society.
He also worked on a number of TV and radio programmes, as well as other newspapers and magazines.