| Businessman killed in Siberian town | |
| A Russian businessman was killed on his way to work Wednesday by an unidentified gunman in what appeared to be an organized crime killing, according to news reports. | |
| Yuri Zinin, the head of Sibneft Company was shot in the back as he walked out of his apartment building in the town of Leninsk-Kuzntesky in the Kemerovo region of central Siberia , Russian news agencies quoted local police as saying. | |
| Zinin's company has the same name as one of Russia 's largest oil producers, Sibneft, controlled by controversial business mogul Boris Berezovsky . But the two companies are separate. | |
| Zinin's Sibneft was locally-based and mostly involved in selling oil products and coal . Kemerovo is one of Russia's main coal-mining regions. | |
| Police launched a search for the killer who fled. Officials wouldn't comment on possible motives for the murder. | |
| There are hundreds of contract murder s in Russia every year as mobsters fight for control of profitable businesses. Only a small number of such killings are ever solved. | |
| The small town of Leninsk-Kuznetsky became known nationwide last year, when the city mayor was arrested on tax fraud and embezzlement charges. Mayor Gennady Konyakhin , also accused of being linked to the mob , is in custody awaiting trial . | |
| (vi/ren) | |