RUSSIA: A senior Siberian official was shot dead on his way to work yesterday in a suspected mafia killing, four years after his predecessor suffered the same fate, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow
Mr Valery Maryasov, deputy mayor of the city of Novosibirsk, was killed by unknown assailants as he stepped out of the lift in his apartment building at about 9 a.m. local time.
"The main theory under consideration is that it was a contract killing," said a spokeswoman for the main prosecutor in Siberia's largest city.
A team of special investigators was examining the crime scene, she added.
Mr Maryasov (47) was in charge of land and property matters for the administration in Novosibirsk.
This role gave him authority over privatisation of businesses and factories in the city and surrounding region.
Disputes over lucrative privatisations in Russia have led to the deaths of dozens of senior officials, bankers and politicians since the early 1990s, when the state assets of the old Soviet Union were carved up in chaotic, corrupt and often ruthless circumstances.
Mr Maryasov had been in charge of privatisation in Novosibirsk, a city of 1.4 million people, since his predecessor, Mr Igor Belyakov, was also shot dead on his way to work in 2000.
Like most such murders, Mr Belyakov's death remains unsolved.
Ahead of presidential elections this month, prosecutors and supporters of the Russian leader and former KGB spy, Mr Vladimir Putin, have launched a much-publicised crackdown on crime and corruption.
While focusing on the alleged economic crimes of several super-rich officials at the Yukos oil firm, the campaign has done little to reduce the level of violent crime in Russia or help to uncover the perpetrators of numerous unsolved, high-profile killings.