 Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's state power monopoly, survived an assassination attempt on Thursday by assailants who detonated a roadside bomb and sprayed his convoy with automatic gunfire. | Just a question: Can the head of a state power monopoly credibly called a reformer? |
The 49-year-old Chubais, one of Russia's best-known figures, came to prominence as the architect of post-Soviet economic reforms under which two dozen "oligarchs" acquired vast wealth while ordinary people suffered a huge slump in living standards. Interfax news agency quoted unnamed police sources as saying a retired military sabotage specialist had been detained and that police searching his home had found explosives. Chubais is now chief executive of Unified Energy System, and the prime mover behind reforms to introduce competition to the power sector of the world's largest country. He told a press briefing he had been aware of a plan to kill him, but refused to say who he thought was behind the attack. "I have an idea of who could have taken out a contract on me," a shaken but defiant Chubais said from the safety of UES headquarters in Moscow. "We had reason to believe something like this might happen."
Witnesses said Chubais was on his way to work from his country home when a roadside bomb hit his two-car cortege and gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons. His armored BMW fled the scene despite being hit in the windshield, hood and front tire. Security guards traveling in a separate car returned fire at two hitmen, who escaped into the surrounding woods. Police said they had found a green Saab they believe was used as a getaway car. An unnamed police source quoted by Interfax news agency said investigators had taken in a suspect for questioning. The man was a retired serviceman who attacked Chubais for "ideological reasons," the agency quoted the source as saying. There was no official confirmation that a suspect had been detained. |