A couple of weeks ago, Stanislovas Jucius went missing in Kaliningrad. One fine morning, when his driver came to pick him up, he wasn’t there.

Jucius has a name like a Roman emperor, befitting a Lithuanian Tycoon. He’s President of the Lithuanian Business Club. CEO of a slew of companies too.

This week the investigation was upgraded to a murder enquiry. ‘It’s just a procedural thing‘, a spokeswoman told the press. But this is certainly going to be another one for Bearded Conspiracy Theorists.

What happened? Every time Putin sits down for an important summit, there’s a body.

First of all, I can confirm that it’s hard to get lost in or distracted in Kaliningrad. There’s no red light district - the town barely has a full complement of regular streetlamps. And besides the museum in Kant’s Cathedral, the only other place to while away a few hours is the new Victoria supermarket. Meanwhile, the bus station has an excellent lost property and left luggage facility.

To say that relationships between Russia and Lithuania are strained is an understatement. Lithuania has been a pet project of George Bush and key to NATO’s ‘Drang Nach Osten’. As a result, Lithuanian diplomats are regularly expelled from Moscow. Lithuanians in Kaliningrad are randomly arrested for ’spying on the Baltic Fleet’. Another national’s unexplained fate isn’t going to help.

And the really bad blood is still about the ‘broken’ oil artery to Lithuania’s only refinery, which Russia just can’t seem to fix.

Yet on the other hand, there’s a lot of Russian-Lithuanian business that goes swimmingly. It’s a question of low friends in high places. Worth remembering that the businesslike Lithuanian President, Rolandas Paksas, was ousted for connections to the Russian mafia. Co-incidentally, Rolandas was also an ace, low-flying pilot, whose stunts helped him win an election against Bush’s preferred candidate.

Anyway, Jucius was in Kaliningrad to unveil a new building created by his construction company. Which made his no-show that day all the more noticeable.

Here’s something else for conspiracy theorists. In the same week the capitalist disappeared, Kaliningrad’s Statue of Lenin re-appeared. Not seen since he was taken from the main square two years ago, Lenin now has pride of place on Lenin Avenue.

Maybe there are parallels here with Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Last Tycoon’ - the successful man who failed in life? Or is it the old story of parallel networks?

Whatever, it will add some welcome spice to the Samara summit. It’s clear already that there won’t be any meaningful talking points.