Russia Shaken By Killing of Bank Official

Civil Servant Had Led Effort To Clean Up Financial Crime

MOSCOW, Sept. 14 -- The assassination of a senior civil servant who led a campaign to clean up the country's banks drew calls Thursday for a merciless response from the government, as well as hand-wringing over whether Russia is outgrowing the bloody business tactics common in the 1990s.

Andrei Kozlov, 41, first deputy chairman of Russia's Central Bank, was shot Wednesday evening outside a sports complex after attending a soccer match between bank employees. He died early Thursday of his wounds. His driver was killed instantly in the attack, which politicians said was probably a contract killing.

Kozlov was respected in financial circles for his drive to shut down banks that engaged in money laundering and put the deposits of customers at risk through illegal practices. Since January, his department at the Central Bank had revoked the licenses of 44 of the country's roughly 1,200 banks, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

The confidence of ordinary Russians in the country's banking sector, which plummeted after a financial crisis in 1998, has been growing steadily, and deposits have jumped sixfold in the last four years.

"He was at the cutting edge of the battle against financial crime," said Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. "He was a very brave and honest man, and through his activity he repeatedly encroached on the interests of unprincipled financiers."

Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said business disputes may have prompted the killing. "A series of banks had their licenses taken away, and it's entirely possible that criminals connected with those structures could have ordered the murder," he said.

Police said they were exploring all possible motives for the killing and reported finding two weapons thrown into tall grass about 200 yards from the scene of the killing. Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said he would personally supervise the investigation.

The assassination was the first killing of a senior federal official since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000. Among other recent assassinations, a regional governor was shot dead in Moscow in 2002, and American journalist Paul Klebnikov was slain in 2004.

As recently as last week at a conference in the resort city of Sochi, Kozlov warned some people in the banking sector that he would continue to target them.

"There is still a large share of suspicious operations in the banking system," he said. "You take part in money laundering, then there might be a ban on your professional activities for the rest of your life. There's no place for this in the banking sector. It disgraces the banking system."

The former head of the Russian Central Bank, Sergei Dubinin, said the killing was a direct assault on the state and on Putin's claim that he has stabilized the country after the chaos of the 1990s.

"The authorities should prove that today's stability is not a mere name," said Dubinin, whose office was fired on in 1996. "This is a challenge to the state's policy in the banking area. The authorities should solve the crime and find not only the actual murderers but also those who ordered Kozlov's assassination." The Kremlin had no immediate comment on the killing.

Former prime minister Anatoly Chubais, who now heads the country's electric utility, said the killing was "a barefaced challenge to all Russian authorities."

"Andrei Kozlov was an unquestionably honest, principled and absolutely noncommercial person," said Chubais, who survived an assassination attempt last year. "This is a case when the authorities must respond in a tough manner, promptly and mercilessly."

Kozlov was married and had three children. He began working at what was then the Soviet Union's Central Bank when he was 24 and spent most of his career, except for short stints in the private sector, in central banking. He had been in charge of banking supervision since 1997 and made the assault on money laundering the centerpiece of his work.