Russian investigators have dropped murder charges against prominent businessman Ilya Traber and closed the investigation into him, according to state-run news agencies TASS and RIA. Traber, 75, was detained in June in connection with the fatal 2020 shooting of businessman and politician Alexander Petrov. TASS said he had already been released from pre-trial detention on health grounds, but there was no official confirmation. Traber has been a leading St. Petersburg business figure for decades, with extensive investments in ports and logistics. He rose to prominence in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when he acquired control of the city’s sea port and oil terminal while Vladimir Putin was a deputy mayor in the city administration. The Kremlin has previously denied that Traber and Putin were friends or had business connections.