A deputy chairman of Russia's central bank was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in the Russian capital on Wednesday, officials said. Andrei Kozlov was hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot wounds after the attack in northeastern Moscow late Wednesday, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Moscow prosecutor's office.
The Interfax news agency said Kozlov's driver was killed by the two attackers, who then fled. The attack occurred at a sports arena where bank workers were having a soccer game, it said. While on a lesser scale than in the turbulent 1990s, contract killings of businessmen and bankers still regularly occur in Russia, where business conflicts often turn violent. |