Former FSB Chief Trofimov Shot Dead

A former chief of the Moscow branch of the Federal Security Service, Colonel General Anatoly Trofimov, and his wife were killed in an apparent contract murder late Sunday, police said.

Trofimov, 64, who had pursued a business career after leaving the FSB in 1997, was shot by a masked gunman outside his apartment at 11 Ulitsa Klyazminskaya in northern Moscow at about 7:30 p.m.

Trofimov was in his Grand Cherokee Jeep when the assailant approached with a pistol, NTV said. His common-law wife, Tatyana Kopytseva, 28, and their daughter, Tatyana, 4, had just gotten out of the car. Trofimov was shot in the chest and head. A third bullet hit Kopytseva in the head, and she died in intensive care.

Trofimov held a number of posts in private companies after leaving the FSB. Most recently he was deputy director of Moscow-registered company Fininvest, or Financial Investment, the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office reported Monday. It was not immediately clear which company prosecutors were referring to, as several companies in the city are registered under that name.

Trofimov left Fininvest last month after a bomb was found on the company's premises, NTV reported.

Prosecutors said they were looking into several possible motives but focused on Trofimov's FSB background and his commercial activity at Fininvest, a spokesman at the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office said, Interfax reported.

If my memory is correct, I think I have read another article that claimed Trofimov criticizing President Putin in the past for the war in Chechenya. It wouldn't be strange even it was President Putin in the back of this assassination. Months ago, there was an anti-Putin campaign on the Internet by Russian students that their page was hacked by unknown hackers and the leader being quized by the police. Democracy in Russia is declining.

I highly doubt it was Putin who was behind this. With the power he has he doesn't have to stoop to killing people. Real power has many ways of making you suffer. Hired contracts are mostly implemented by people with power and influence to do almost anything they want (eg oligarchs), but not the government clout to (for example) throw you in gaol for years. This is not Putin's work, and anyways there are many who criticize him far more than this guy did. This guy would not even hve made a blip on the radar.

With that said let me add this. There are certain elements in Russia ....actually in the whole of Eastern Europe, from the new-NATO/former-Warsaw nations like Poland, all the way to the Ukraine and Russia .....that you do not want to mess with. The Russian, Ukranian, etc etc Mafia (the Mafiya) are a good example. If you live in Eastern and Western Europe, Israel, major cities in the US, and certain sections of the mid-East and Africa (i was catching up with some reading about the events going on in my birth country, Kenya, and according to reports the Mafiya started streaming in a couple of years ago before unleashing a major power grab, killing the local drug godfather, and establishing a base in Mombasa) ....you do not want to mess with them. Other elements are the remains of the oligarchs. While not as overt as their predecessors the 'new oligarchs' are just as powerful. Just because they wear a 7,000 dollar suit doesn't mean they wouldn't hire someone to introduce you to the business end of a Dragunov. And then there are the ex-power brokers, former members of the KGB/FSB, spoiled rich brats, and a half-dozen other nefarious 'interests' that lurk in both the shadows as well as in the glitzy echelons of upper society.

Putin would be the last thing on your mind. (And honestly it would be better to have Putin annoyed with you than a good number of the others. It is one thing having your tax returns checked, and re-checked, and re-checked by the government, and it is another to have to tell all your family to go into hiding, and even then always worry that the pretty lady making eyes at you was in reality sent by the Mafiya to locate your whereabouts ./....or your family's).

The thing is that they have to be willing to pay a price for doing so. and most people would rather not put their families at risk and thus look the other way.

And i cannot fault them for doing so.

I can, if you can't do your job, you shouldn't be taking the people's tax money. They should be provided with whatever protection that's available, but they should do their job. Arming the families couldn't hurt, since "contract killers", like other scum, tend to be cowards. A few of them getting whacked while trying to take out family members, might encourage others to find other lines of work.

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