Brown U. student murdered in Moscow

The mysterious death of Brown University junior Anthony Riccio in Moscow last week has raised serious questions about the safety and security of American students studying abroad. Riccio was apparently strangled and then thrown from a 16th-floor dormitory balcony, the Associated Press reported. He was buried in his hometown of Glastonbury, Ct. on Tuesday. According to Nyda Butig, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department Consular Affairs Office in Washington, Russian authorities are conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Riccio's death and attempting to determine whether it was murder or suicide. "[The authorities] have not ruled anything out," Budig said, adding that a report detailing their findings should be released today. "They are looking for witnesses and talking to people." Brown President Vartan Gregorian wrote to U.S. Ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering requesting his assistance in the investigation. Riccio's father, John, said the family appreciates the efforts of the Embassy, State Department and American Collegiate Consortium (ACC) -- an organization headquartered at Middlebury College that administered the program in which Anthony was enrolled -- in uncovering clues about his son's death. "We expect due diligence [in the investigation], and we hope to have an answer forthcoming," he said. "Either way we come out with a conclusion on this, we lose." John Riccio said his son had been to Russia on a three-week visitation program during his sophomore year of high school. As a college junior, Anthony wanted to immerse himself in the Russian culture, and his father still supports that decision. Ray Benson, director of the ACC, said four other ACC students living in the same building were moved out the night of Riccio's death. None of the 86 ACC students in Russia have decided to return to the U.S. in the wake of this incident. But Riccio's death has given all study-abroad programs -- especially those in Moscow -- an "added sense of urgency," Benson said. As a general rule, when ACC students arrive in their host country, they have a comprehensive, week-long orientation that covers all aspects of living in a foreign environment, including the lack of modern amenities, adjustment issues, roommate problems and the language barrier. "Students accuse us of scaring them half to death," Benson said. "We try to tell them it's not like Middlebury or Wellesley [or their home school in the U.S.] -- we try to begin a reality check at the start of orientation. "Orientation was barely over, and [the students] had just arrived on their campuses [when this happened]," he added. Allegations that Russian State Humanities University -- where Riccio was staying -- rented rooms to non-students are also being investigated, Benson said. "Every year, we go through dorms [at foreign institutions] with a representative from the host institution and [ACC] students [before move in]," he said. "It's just going to be done with a deliberate effort to raise everybody's consciousness now." The ACC does not plan to house students at RHSU again. "I have never recommended that students study in Moscow -- I spent eight years of my life there," Benson said. "They would learn Russian culture better in a smaller city." Joyce Randolph, director of the University's Office of International Programs, said she is sure Riccio's death -- like any violent crime in a large city -- will make University students think twice about going abroad. But, John Riccio said he hopes such incidents do not deter students from studying in a foreign country. "This could have happened in Philadelphia," he said. "We think [other students] should go abroad, we would support the programs that they're on, we don't want to curtail any exchange program." According to Randolph, the number of University students studying in Russia has declined "very much in recent years," because of both civil and political unrest and the decline in living conditions due to economic difficulties. "We don't have a program in Russia that we run ourselves -- we have a primary approved program with American Council of Teachers of Russian," Randolph said. "We have traditionally sent Penn students on that program." The University's new study-abroad policy, which requires students to enroll in University-sponsored programs in order to receive credit and financial aid for their work, will not affect this option because there are no current plans to launch a new program for undergraduates in Russia.