Posted on 03/25/2012 9:08:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A RUSSIAN banking tycoon was in a coma last night after he was gunned down outside his London flat by a "drive-by" hitman.
Exiled financier German Gorbuntsov, 45, fell in a hail of sub-machine gun bullets fired by the would-be assassin.
Blood was smeared all over the walls of the lobby of his exclusive apartment block and the bullets also took out chunks of the front door and smashed windows.
One witness to the terrifying shooting near the Canary Wharf financial district said Gorbuntsov seemed to be targeted by a drive-by gunman.
Bart Fogler, 27, who works on the front desk of a nearby block, said: "I heard from a resident the shots may have come from a car.
"I ran next door where I saw the shot man and his wife who was hysterical. I saw holes in his clothes.
"He was bleeding heavily. He was trying to stand but he fell to the ground."
Resident Lynette Johnson, 43 — who saw the lobby after the shooting — said: "There was blood everywhere, all over the walls.
"The windows were smashed so he may have been shot through them."
Gorbuntsov — who used to own banks in Russia and Moldova — was last night under armed police guard in hospital where he was said to be critical but stable. His coma is medically induced.
It is thought he may have been targeted after he was named as a witness in the shooting of a Russian banker in Moscow in 2009.
He had apparently told his lawyer: "If I go back to Russia, they will kill me."
One neighbour last night said police told him Gorbuntsov knew the hitman.
The 54-year-old — who did not want to be named — said: "They mentioned that the attacker was known to the man who was attacked."
Former Kremlin adviser Aleksander Nekrassov said: "It looks like a contract hit because a sub-machine gun is not a weapon that would be used by some amateur."
The Met's Trident gang crime team were last night probing Tuesday evening's shooting in Byng Street, East London, which they are treating as attempted murder.
Pro killers on streets
THE attempted assassination of Russian Gorbuntsov is not the first time hitmen have struck in Britain.
In 2006 ex-KGB dissident Alexander Litvinenko, 41, was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London.
Russian authorities have refused to extradite the prime suspect, fellow former agent Andrei Lugovoy.
MI6 agent Gareth Williams, 31, was mysteriously found dead in a bag at his flat in Pimlico, South London, in August 2010. A couple seen there weeks earlier have never been traced.
And one of the most famous assassinations saw Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, 49, killed by ricin poison delivered by a pellet embedded in the end of a brolly on Waterloo Bridge in 1978.
The crime was never officially solved but years later two ex-KGB men said the Soviets were behind it.
Occupoop people love stories like this.
...but I thought guns were illegel in Briton and it was a safe place to visit. The Gun Control Libs told me so. < / sarc
If you are a Russian ex-pat and fear for your life from Russians, change your identity and move to some random place. Don’t parade around in London under your real name. You would think that these characters would learn
Exactly. London is not much safer than Moscow for the most part. Especially considering the large Russian population in parts of London.
When will they find Soros. That’d be some news.
The idiots in occupy would, although it really proves that socialist states always turn into corrupt, soulless, mafia thug states where everything must be connected to politics - and Russia has the longest experience with that.
не звоните нам, мы свяжемся с Вами
(That's, don't call us, we'll call you.)
Brolly = umbrella
Who knew the Russians could go Compton on second LOL!
The UK total has 700-800 murders a year. I think Russia/Moscow is a bit more violent (and I say that as a Moscophile and Russophile).
By the way my post was not a knock on the UK, nor was it saying London is unsafe. It was simply a statement that if one is fleeing Russians, London is not the city to flee to. One should get a new identity and go to a place that is not one of the premier world capitals. Hide out in London, and soon you'll see cars with 251 prefix numberplates driving past quite often.
Again, it was not a knock on London. Just saying that if you are attempting to flee from the FSB and/or GRU, or one of their operational units, choosing London as a place to hide is almost as dangerous as hiding out in Moscow proper. It was not to say that London is a dangerous city - it was meant to say that if one is a target of interest from the FSB/GRU, choosing London is (almost) tantamount to selecting Moscow. There are simply too many operatives there.
However, from a safety perspective, London is obviously a much safer place than Moscow. I hope that clears it up.
...working for Virgil "the Turk" Sollozzo?....Hmmmmmmm
How do you pronounce that?
I was just being silly. Zaslon is the wet works outfit for either the FSB or GRU.
OK, you got me.......LOL!
These promos for the new Bond film are really getting elaborate...
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