Moldova police detained Friday Igor Velchev, suspected of killing Russian television NTV special correspondent Ilya Zimin on February 26. Interior Ministry Georgy Papuk said Velchev, born in 1984 in Moldova, was also accused of forging documents in Moldova.
"Documents confirming the charges against Velchev and an arrest warrant for him were sent to Moldova's Prosecutor General's Office," said Sergei Marchenko, spokesman for the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office.
Moldova said it was ready to extradite Velchev when the necessary procedures were completed.
Zimin was found dead by colleagues in his Moscow apartment on February 27. An autopsy revealed he had died of head injuries and police said the door to the apartment had not been forced open.
Investigators on the case said Velchev met Zimin in Moscow February 25 and spent time with him at a Moscow night club until about two in the morning. They left the club together and went to Zimin's apartment, where an argument is said to have broken out before Velchev allegedly beat the reporter to death.
Early in March NTV said it would pay 1 million rubles (about $36,000) for information leading to the arrest of the suspect in the killing.
