MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - A prominent businessman was killed in Moscow last night in what investigators believe was a contract killing, a police officer said on Thursday.
Yevgeny Chivilikhin, 57, head of the Moscow Guild of Markets and Fairs and a co-founder of the Timiryazevsky trade center, was gunned down near his house in the north of the Russian capital at about 9 p.m. Moscow time on Wednesday.
"An unknown man fired several pistol shots at Chivilikhin, made an execution-style shot to the head, and fled the scene," the police source said. "Investigators are positive it was a contract killing linked to the victim's business activities."
He said police have seized a tape from a surveillance camera installed near the house in the hope it will help identify the killer.
In 2006, Chivilikhin escaped an attempt on his life, when a bomb with a yield equivalent to 400 grams of TNT exploded near his house.
Investigators said the killing could be linked to an ongoing turf war between several crime groups for control over the trade center, which is visited by up to 500,000 people a day, Kommersant daily said on Thursday. The center has also been plagued by internal disputes among shareholders and lease holders, the paper said.
Two other senior members of the association that owns the trade center suffered attempts on their lives in 1997 and 2006, Kommersant said.
