Yevgeny Grigoryev, 48, was gunned down in the yard of the Saratov prosecutor's office at about 10:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday.
Grigoryev, appointed prosecutor in February 2006, had earlier initiated regional laws to fight corruption. In 2006 alone, he opened corruption and abuse of office inquiries against 25 municipal officials and lawmakers.
"Cartridges from a Makarov pistol were found at the scene. The pistol must have been equipped with a silencer as nobody heard any gunshots," a police officer said.
A senior investigator with the regional prosecutor's office said there were witnesses to the slaying and their testimony could aid police in drawing up an identikit portrait of the killer.
The latest high-profile probe in the region was directed against the mayor of Saratov, Yury Aksyonenko, accused of abuse of office in granting ownership rights for plots of land. The investigation into the charges continues.
In the fall of 2007, Grigoryev proposed banning the sale of alcohol from 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. and imposing a fine of 400,000 rubles (over $16,000) for offenders, doubling the sum for any repeated violation of the law.
Alcohol sales in the region totaled some $40 million in 2007.
Grigoryev's colleagues were sure that the murder was connected to his work, one of them telling RIA Novosti anonymously that, "he got in someone's way." His father, a well-known local lawyer, told the agency that he considered his son's death to have been the result of a contract killing.
