MOSCOW -- An aide to Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov who dealt with foreign investors was severely wounded Tuesday and his driver killed in an attack blamed on mafia groups who are increasingly targeting city officials.
Two men opened fire on the car carrying Josef Ordzhonikidze, who is in charge of Moscow's foreign economic relations, shortly after 9:00 am, spraying it with bullets that immediately killed the driver, reports said.
Luzhkov pinned the blame for the murder attempt in broad daylight on criminal groups who resort to contract killings to exact revenge.
"He clearly crossed someone's path," the mayor said in remarks broadcast on NTV private television. Luzkhov denounced the attack as "an awful crime."
"He had to take a lot of decisions because he dealt with mainly foreign currency investments. We're talking about major projects," Luzhkov added.
The official's most recent business deal was an agreement with British engineering firm TWR Group to build a 100 million dollar Formula One circuit just outside Moscow, Interfax news agency said.
Doctors fighting to save the 52-year-old's life said a bullet had grazed his internal organs. Surgeons at Moscow's Sklifosovsky clinic led by renowned physician Alexander Yermolov operated on the official for more than five hours, carrying out several blood transfusions, RIA-Novosti reported.
Two masked attackers, one of whom was wielding a Kalashnikov automatic weapon, sprayed the official's metal-plated Nissan car with armour-piercing bullets just a few hundred metres (yards) from the Kremlin, ITAR-TASS said.
The black sedan bore the traces of some 30 bullet marks.
Police found a 7.62 mm calibre Kalashnikov at the scene whose ammunition can pierce a railway track at a distance of 100 metres, according to RIA-Novosti.
NTV said that one of the two attackers -- stationed on both sides of Leontovsky Pereulok, not far from city hall -- first opened fire on the car killing the driver.
Then the second accomplice let loose a hail of bullets in the direction of the passenger seat where Ordzhonikidze was sitting.
Ordzhonikidze told police that his attackers, who fled the scene on foot, were dressed entirely in black with their faces covered by black masks, according to ITAR-TASS.
A few months ago, his deputy, Vyacheslav Burulnik, was also the target of an assassination bid, but he escaped unhurt.
Since 1994, at least eight municipal officials have been the target of such attacks. Another Luzhkov deputy, who was in charge of transport and communications, was killed in 1995, according to ITAR-TASS.
The Moscow mayor's entourage is widely suspected of involvement in corruption. At the end of September, the Russian interior ministry warned Luzhkov about his corrupt civil servants.
Luzhkov himself has strenuously denied any link to the mafia. City hall under Luzhkov has developed extensive business interests in Moscow, including shares in lucrative state concerns privatized in the 1990s.
The highly popular mayor, who has brought huge wealth to Moscow allowing the capital to far outstrip other Russian regions, was re-elected Sunday with more than 70 percent of the vote.
A special criminal inquiry into the Orzhonikidze murder attempt was set up under Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kozlov.
Yegor Stroyev, speaker of the Federation Council upper house of parliament, urged the government to halt the crime wave in Russia.
"Criminals today are starting to run wild under the nose of the government. The authorities must bring the full force of the law and the president's authority to halt these criminals," he said in remarks broadcast on NTV.
Working at the mayor's office since 1990, the Georgian-born Ordzhonikidze was appointed to his present job in January this year, according to RIA-Novosti. He is married with two children.