Russian central banker dies after shooting

MOSCOW - The first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank died in hospital today, hours after gunmen with automatic weapons attacked him outside a Moscow sports stadium and killed his driver, officials said.

Andrei Kozlov, 41, a high-profile figure in Russian finance who was in charge of cleaning up the murky and fragmented banking system, had undergone emergency surgery overnight for serious gunshot wounds to his chest and head.

"Andrei Kozlov died early this morning," Inna Sigeyeva, a deputy chief doctor at Moscow's Hospital No. 33, told Reuters.

Sources close to police investigations said Wednesday's attack on Kozlov, who had led an aggressive drive to shut down banks accused of money laundering and other crimes, bore the hallmarks of a contract killing.

The attack could have an impact on banking stocks such as Sberbank and on the interbank market, especially if the Kremlin reacts by cracking down on banks Kozlov investigated, analysts said.

The gunmen were lying in wait for Kozlov as he emerged from the stadium in the Sokolniki district in the northeast of the Russian capital after a soccer match between bank employees.

Media reports said the gunmen fired at least four times, killing the driver Alexander Semyonov and badly wounding Kozlov before fleeing.

In a car park outside the stadium, a pool of blood could be seen next to a dark blue Mercedes car. Nearby lay a body draped in plastic sheeting.

Russia's banking system grew out of chaos after the collapse of the Soviet Union when violence was a part of doing business. One analyst said the attack showed the sector had still not shaken off its past.

Contract-style killings of wealthy businessmen and bankers were common in the 1990s but they tapered off after President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.

The shooting was the highest profile attack in the capital since Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of Russia's electricity monopoly, escaped unscathed from an assassination attempt in March 2005.

"We are looking at all possible versions, including (Kozlov's) professional activities, mistaken identity, and his personal relations," Moscow's chief prosecutor Yuri Syomin was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax.

Only last week, Kozlov called at a banking forum in the southern city of Sochi for tougher penalties against bankers found guilty of money laundering.

Russia has about 1200 banks, many of them tiny outfits with little capital.

"This event forces us to acknowledge what the central bank has been up against from a community which has its roots in the wild early years of transition," said Rory MacFarquhar, an economist at Goldman Sachs in Moscow.

Kozlov started at what was then the Soviet central bank at the age of 24. He rose quickly through the ranks to become first deputy chairman in 1997. He left two years later for a spell in the private sector, rejoining the central bank in April 2002.

- REUTERS