Hitmen kill ex-KGB agent turned tycoon in Moscow

DETECTIVES IN Russia are investigating the murder of a former KGB agent who was shot dead in Moscow on Monday in the latest contract killing in the capital.

Shabtai von Kalmanovic, a businessman, concert promoter and former spy, died in a hail of bullets in the passenger seat of his luxury S500 Mercedes.

His killers had waited for his car to stop at traffic lights – a classic assassin’s tactic – before opening fire, hitting him 10 times.

Yesterday police said there was no doubt Kalmanovic had been the victim of a professional hit, carried out by two gunmen who fled the scene in a Lada Priora.

His driver was injured in the shooting, close to Vladimir Putin’s Moscow office.

Vladimir Markin, of the investigating committee of Russia’s procurator, said forensic science experts had recovered 19 bullets. Mr Markin said: “At the moment we are working on several theories of his killing. But the most probable one is linked to his business activities.”

Russian newspapers searched for clues in the businessman’s colourful past, which included a long spell in an Israeli jail after a cold war conviction for espionage.

Born in Soviet Lithuania, Kalmanovic emigrated to Israel with his parents in 1971. By the late 1980s he had become one of the wealthiest members of Israel’s Russian diaspora. The source of his riches appeared to be linked to construction.

In 1987, however, Israel unmasked him as a Soviet spy and sentenced him to nine years.

Kalmanovic emerged from jail in 1993 following Kremlin intervention. Back in Moscow, he became a leading promoter, organising shows for Michael Jackson, Tom Jones and Liza Minnelli.

He was also a passionate basketball fan, and became general manager of Russia’s national women’s team.

Lurking in the background, however, were more shady connections.

According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Kalmanovic invited the notorious Russian mafia boss Vyacheslav Ivankov to his daughter’s wedding. Ivankov, known by his nickname, Yaponchik, died last month after being shot earlier this year.– (Guardian service)