Army officer held over attempted murder of Russia's privatization Czar?

The China Post ^ | 2005/3/18

[lizol]

Army officer held over attempted murder of Russia's privatization Czar? (updated PM 5:00)

2005/3/18 MOSCOW (AP)

Russian police on Friday interrogated a retired army officer over a dramatic roadside assassination attempt against national electricity chief Anatoly Chubais, and newspapers speculated that powerful business enemies had aimed not to kill but to intimidate him.

In a major blow to the country's image of growing stability under President Vladimir Putin, assailants on Thursday detonated a bomb and raked Chubais' armored car with automatic weapons fire as he was being driven to work from his home in an exclusive area west of Moscow.

Chubais is one of the most hated figures in Russia due to his role as architect of the infamous 1990s privatization program that handed vast chunks of state assets to a handful of well-connected businessmen while most Russians remain mired in poverty. He said, hours after the assault, that he had been expecting an attack and knew who stood behind it _ though he refused to divulge any names.

Late Thursday, police detained a retired military officer and explosives specialist on suspicion of involvement in the attack after authorities tracked down a possible getaway car, Russian news agencies reported. The prosecutor general's office declined requests for confirmation from The Associated Press.

The Kommersant newspaper identified the suspect as 57-year Vladimir Kvachov, a retired colonel in the GRU military intelligence and Afghan veteran who has been decorated for bravery several times. He can be held for 48 hours without charge.

Russian newspapers floated three main theories for the attack, saying it was linked either to Chubais' political activities as a liberal opposition leader, a business conflict over the contested reform of the electricity giant or a case of popular revenge against Russia's loathed privatization czar.

Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov said he was sure that that Chubais had been targeted "for stealing from the people."

But Kommersant pointed to business enemies who had bought shares in the state-controlled electricity monopoly, Unified Energy Systems, or UES, in the unfulfilled expectation of gaining control of major power-generating companies as the more likely organizers of the attack.

Investigation sources, meanwhile, said that the attack had appeared to deliberately spare Chubais' life.

An explosive device containing 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of TNT was detonated near his BMW limousine, tearing a 5-meter-wide (15-foot-wide) crater in the pavement.

Two attackers clad in combat fatigues then sprayed the car with automatic weapons fire as his driver sped off. After briefly exchanging fire with Chubais' security guards, who had been following in another vehicle, the attackers fled into a nearby forest, police said.

"They missed the target, they detonated the bomb too early," an unnamed investigator told Kommersant.

"Most probably the aim was not to kill Chubais," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying.

The Vremya Novostei daily described the assassination attempt as a "banal provocation."

"This is backed up by its complete failure. Either the criminals wanted to create a sensation or they were totally unprofessional," it said.

Russian television showed footage of Chubais' BMW, its hood riddled with tears from bullets or shrapnel.

The plans for a radical restructuring of UES, which will split more than 40 regional energy companies into separate generating, transmission and marketing companies, with current shareholders receiving a stake in proportion to their current share, were adopted in February 2003, but there is uncertainty over how they will ultimately be implemented.

Some analysts said that powerful industrial barons who relied on dirt-cheap electricity supplies were threatened by the electricity liberalization, which will lead to higher prices.