April 29, 2000 4:00am


Cops are trying to determine if the executions of four Russians and Orthodox Jews and the attempted murder of a fifth man on Passover are linked to the Russian mob, The Post has learned.

Detectives are working overtime to unravel the mysteries of the month-long spree of bloodshed. All five were shot, and three of the five were involved in businesses traditionally linked to organized crime.

They include:

* The discovery of the bullet-riddled body of Mark Simon, a 34-year-old Orthodox Jew and father of two, who was shot 12 times and dumped near Beach 66th Street in Far Rockaway on April 14. Simon allegedly was involved in a credit-card scam. His brother, David Simon, 31, is doing three to six years in state prison for attempted forgery.

* Beautiful Russian émigré Veronika Chaschina, the mother of a 6-year-old boy, who worked as a stripper in Staten Island and New Jersey. Her body was found face-down in a pool of blood in the kitchen of her East Ninth Street apartment in Brooklyn. Nothing was missing and a male friend provided detectives with a curious description of three suspects – two bald men who looked like identical twins – and a woman.

* The botched hit on Passover last week of an Orthodox Jewish man who was shot in the arm when he answered the door to his home in Flatbush. The victim, whose name is being withheld, told detectives that, when he answered the door at about 1:10 p.m., he saw a 6-foot, 205-pound black man about 20 years old, holding a cardboard box as though he were a deliveryman.

Instead of handing over the package, the suspect whipped out a gun and said, “I’m here to kill you” and opened fire, striking the victim in the right forearm before fleeing.

* Millionaire Russian émigré Borys Kiejilches, 49, of posh Todt Hill, Staten Island, the owner of an aviation-fuel company, who disappeared March 26. Authorities believe the hog-tied corpse found in a drum that washed ashore Tuesday in the Rockaways is that of Kiejilches.

* The execution-style murder of a man authorities believe is Russian, who was found naked, shot in the head and dumped in the woods at Tennyson Road and Richmond Avenue in Staten Island Tuesday morning.

Sources say the sudden spate of murders has detectives who specialize in the Russian mob turning up the heat on confidential sources in that murky underworld for possible clues.

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