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THIS is the beautiful Russian prostitute who inadvertently lured top Hong Kong barrister, Gary Alderdice, to a violent death in the lawless Russian city of Vladivostok.

   As part of an investigation into the brutal killings, the Sunday Morning Post has obtained the first photograph of Natalia Samofalova to be published in Hong Kong.

 With tumbling blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, it is easy to see how the 20-year-old Macau nightclub dancer attracted the attention of the popular lawyer.

  But it wasn't enough to save her and her lover, both shot to death in a tiny Vladivostok flat early last Saturday.

  Samofalova certainly appears to have led a double life . . . the ''quiet girl'' of Macau far removed from the girl back in Russia who ''put on airs as if she were a princess''.

  The manager of a Macau hotel where the couple often stayed said: ''I remember she was a real head-turner, six feet tall, long blonde hair and well built. She was very quiet but they seemed very happy together.''   But her Vladivostok neighbours had a different tale to tell.

  ''We managed to get acquainted with her during the last month,'' said one.

  ''But krutois [young gangsters] took her home almost every night.

  ''She put on airs as if she were a princess, while folks like us did not deserve any politeness.'' While a motive for the killings remains a mystery, other Russian girls working the bars and discos of Macau said they could be linked to the murders of at least two other Vladivostok prostitutes who had recently left the Portuguese enclave.

  Adding to the fears of the vice girls is the knowledge that some of the gangsters, both in Vladivostok and in Macau, are former members of the feared KGB.

  Since the end of the Cold War unemployed KGB agents, familiar with running vice rings for espionage purposes, have moved into vice for cash.

  And Alderdice certainly had plenty of cash with him. Sources in Russia say he had apparently flown to Vladivostok with more than HK$1.1 million in his possession . . . cash which is still missing.

  One theory raised in Hong Kong last week was that Alderdice did not take the money with him to the flat and that Samofalova, who was born in Braunboctok in April 1974, was tortured in an attempt to find it.

   According to reports coming out of Vladivostok the US$150,000 in cash which the lawyer declared at customs has not been found even though two people are under arrest in connection with the murders.

  One longtime legal friend of the dead lawyer, who was killed in the early hours of June 24, said he was ''naive'' to go to the city with so much money to meet a prostitute in a city known for its lawlessness.

   ''I think he tried to buy her out [from the mafia], they listened, took the money and shot him as a warning to blokes like you and me,'' he said.

  ''And they blew her away as a warning to the girls in Macau.''    But it is the potential threat from the gangsters that operate in Vladivostok that has frightened the Russian vice girls in Macau.

   At least one former KGB operative is known to have been involved in the Macau vice trade but left the enclave recently. It is not known if he was connected with Samofalova.

 During the height of the Cold War one of the favourite operations used by the KGB was the Honey Trap, in which Westerners were blackmailed after being caught in compromising positions with young women or men.

  The KGB ran prostitution rings as part of general intelligence gathering operations, as fronts for other activities, and also as a means to make money to cover costs of other activities.

   Alderdice's friend and colleague, Michael Lunn, QC, flew to Vladivostok yesterday to identify the body, which the family want to be cremated in Russia, and to organise the repatriation of the remains.

   Mr Lunn was assisted by both the New Zealand and Russian governments in obtaining a visa at short notice and in being met at the airport by officials from the Vladivostok prosecutors office, which is handling the case.

   ''Both sides want to get this thing sorted out as quickly as possible,'' he told the Sunday Morning Post.

    He was met at the airport yesterday afternoon by officers working for Viktor Gavrilov, chief of the regional police, who were due to take him to the city morgue.

   Mr Lunn said Alderdice had not given up his practice, as reported earlier this week, and had been working on ''a complicated legal matter'', believed to be tied to the George Tan trial. He was also due to appear in the High Court this week on a drug case, said Lunn.

   A memorial service for Alderdice will be held at St Barnabas Church, Khandallah, Wellington, New Zealand, at 2 pm on Tuesday.



Natalia and her date with death