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Russian Central Banker Kozlov Assassinated in Moscow (Update8)
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Russian central banker Andrei Kozlov, who led a fight against corruption in the nation's banking industry, was assassinated outside a sports stadium in Moscow.
Kozlov, a 41-year-old deputy chairman of the central bank, was shot in the head and neck by two gunmen last night, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman at the Moscow prosecutor's office. He died in hospital No. 33 in Moscow this morning.
The murder may be linked to Kozlov's job leading the central bank's fight against money laundering, Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, the highest-ranking law enforcement official, said in a statement on his Web site today. Kozlov was instrumental in pushing measures to regulate a banking system that almost collapsed after the government defaulted on $40 billion of debt in 1998.
``There are people in Russia who do not want the transparent, law-abiding and rational system he was creating,'' said Richard Hainsworth, chief executive officer of RusRating, an independent bank-rating company in Moscow. ``His reforms have pushed up the price of black money, of giving bribes.''
The reforms Kozlov worked on included introducing a deposit insurance law, tighter supervision and increasing anti-money laundering legislation.
``Kozlov no doubt ruffled many feathers in his efforts to clean up the Russian banking system,'' said Timothy Ash, managing director at Bear Stearns International Ltd. ``The attack will likely be seen as a direct attack on'' the regime of President Vladimir Putin.
Radical Changes
Kozlov started working at the Soviet Union's central bank in 1989 as a senior economist and remained at the bank when it became the Bank of Russia in 1991. He left his post as deputy chairman in 1999 to work for private businesses including ZAO Russian Standard Bank.
He was lured back to the central bank by Putin in April 2002, according to the bank's Web site, and was seen as ``an insider and a heavyweight within the administration,'' according to Ash.
``Kozlov was a strong believer in reforming the financial markets of Russia,'' said Levan Zolotarev, a senior vice president at Russian Standard, who had known Kozlov for about 20 years since they studied at the Moscow Financial Institute. ``He pushed many radical changes that were important for the banking business.''
Zolotarev worked with Kozlov on developing amendments to the bankruptcy law. That bill will enter the parliament this fall.
Great Contribution
``He made a great contribution to the reform of the banking system of Russia,'' the central bank said in an e-mailed statement confirming the murder.
Kozlov was married with three children, according to the central bank's Web site. He was gunned down along with his driver as he left the stadium following a football match between central bank employees. Kozlov's driver was also killed in the attack. Investigators may have found the guns used to kill Kozlov, state- owned RIA Novosti reported, citing prosecutors.
The president's press office said it had no official comment to make on the murder, according to a spokesman.
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov opened today's cabinet meeting with a minute's silence.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moscow has seen a number of assassinations linked to the worlds of business and finance.
``This hearkens back to the 1990s and speaks very badly about the state of law and order,'' said Jochen Wermuth, founder of Wermuth Asset Management GmbH, based in Wiesbaden, Germany, whose Greater Europe Fund has more than $500 million under management.
U.S. Victim
U.S. businessman Paul Tatum was gunned down in 1996 as he and his two bodyguards entered the Kievskaya subway station in central Moscow. Tatum had been engaged in a long-running battle for control of the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel near the metro station, the Moscow Times reported at the time.
Paul Klebnikov, the U.S.-born editor of Forbes Magazine in Russia, was shot dead in July 2004 in Moscow.
Klebnikov, 41, had investigated Russian businesses and wrote a biography in 2001 of fugitive businessman Boris Berezovsky, titled ``Godfather of the Kremlin'' He was shot as he left work.
``We would expect that Putin will set the resolution of this case as an absolute priority for the country's security services,'' said Ash at Bear Stearns. ``Failure to apprehend the killers would send a signal to others that intimidation of government officials is once again an option.''
The ruble was little changed against the dollar at 26.76 at close of trading in Moscow. Against the euro, it traded little changed at 34.08. The yield on Russia's dollar bond maturing in March 2030 was little changed at 5.86 percent. The price of the 5 percent bond was $111.10. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
The dollar-priced Russian Trading System Index added 0.7 percent to 1566.39 at the close in Moscow. The ruble-denominated Micex Index fell 0.2 percent to 1381.32.
To contact the reporters on this story: Hannah Gardner in Moscow athgardner3@bloomberg.net Svenja O'Donnell in Moscow at sodonnell@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Fried at mfried@bloomberg.net Chris Kirkham at ckirkham@bloomber
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