MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - A new first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia to oversee money laundering and other checks has been appointed to replace the murdered banker Andrei Kozlov, the CBR said Thursday.
Kozlov, 41, widely described in the media as an honest official who led a crusade against money laundering and other criminal banking practices, was gunned down in mid-September of last year in what appeared to be a contract killing.
On January 17, prosecutors charged banker Alexei Frenkel, 35, whose VIP bank Kozlov had been instrumental in shutting down, with ordering the Central Bank official's murder.
"Gennady Melikyan has been appointed first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia as of February 1, 2007," the bank said.
Melikyan, 58, was appointed to run the Russian Central Bank's Banking Supervision Committee in September 2006, following Kozlov's murder.
Has also has a seat on the CBR board of directors.
Melikyan was formerly Russia's minister of labor, and was a deputy chairman of the country's state-run household savings bank, Sberbank, until 2003.
