http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-klebnikov13jul13.storyKilling of Forbes Russia Editor May Be Tied to List of Wealthy (anonymity lost)
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 July 13, 2004
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.<snip>
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. <snip>
Yevgeny Vittenberg, president of Intelbridge, a Moscow think tank, said: "It was clearly an assassination. Most likely, his death is related to the billionaires list. Someone did not want to be exposed in such a way."
The list of the richest Russians included 36 billionaires. Together, those top figures on the list control about $110 billion, equal to about one-quarter of the country's annual economic output, Klebnikov said in May at a news conference promoting the issue of the magazine.<snip>
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