THE WORLD
Killing of Forbes Russia Editor May Be Tied to List of Wealthy
Many suspect that he was shot because the magazine named the 100 richest Russians. The top prosecutor is interested in the case.
By David Holley, Times Staff Writer
MOSCOW — Prosecutors investigating the gangland-style slaying of a Moscow-based American investigative journalist were focusing Monday on the possibility that the killing was linked to his work, a view shared by many observers in Russia's political and business circles.
The most widely voiced suspicion was that Paul Klebnikov, 41, the editor of Forbes magazine's recently launched Russian edition, was the victim of a contract killing ordered because the magazine in May published a list of the 100 richest Russians.
Klebnikov was gunned down Friday evening in a hail of nine bullets — four of which struck him — after leaving Forbes' Moscow office, authorities said. The assailant or assailants sped off in a car, which police said they recovered Saturday.
Investigators "are so far inclined to believe that Klebnikov was assassinated because of his professional activities," the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported Monday....
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The targets and potential targets of Klebnikov's journalistic eye were numerous enough that fingers of suspicion pointed in various directions. A fluent speaker of Russian, Klebnikov was particularly knowledgeable about this country's murky business world, in which fortunes were made through the corrupt privatization of state assets in the 1990s — and in which gangsters have often been used to resolve business disputes....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-klebnikov13jul13,1,3102384.story?coll=la-home-world
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