German Gorbuntsov targeted by gunman in black outside apartment in Canary Wharf on Tuesday
A Russian banker is in a coma after being shot several times as he walked into his London home in the shadow of Canary Wharf.
German Gorbuntsov, who is in his 40s, was targeted outside his apartment on Tuesday evening by a gunman dressed in black who fired several shots before sprinting away, it has emerged . He is understood to have passed information earlier this year to the Russian police about the attempted murder of another financier in Moscow in 2009.
A Russian exile living in the UK, Gorbuntsov is in a medically induced coma in hospital and said to be in a critical but stable condition. Detectives are treating the shooting as an attempted murder, and have appealed for witnesses.
Scotland Yard would not be drawn on reports that the victim was shot with a submachine gun.
According to Russian media, Gorbuntsov was named as a suspect and a witness in an attack on the financier Alexander Antonov in Moscow in 2009.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper suggested on Friday a possible link between the London shooting and the investigation in Moscow into the attempted killing of Antonov.
Russian police have never established who ordered the attack on Antonov, although three Chechen men were convicted of attempted murder and given long jail sentences in 2010. Detectives in Moscow are understood to have reopened the investigation into the shooting of Antonov earlier this year after Gorbuntsov provided new testimony.
Vadim Vedenin, Gorbuntsov's lawyer in Moscow, told Kommersant that the testimony supplied to police by his client had implicated two of his former business partners in the Antonov attack. Both businessmen deny any involvement in the attack.
Gorbuntsov, who used to own a number of banks in Russia and Moldova, is also wanted in Moldova on suspicion of embezzlement and the illegal takeover of a bank, according to reports in Russia.
Valery Andronik, his lawyer in Moldova, told Kommersant: "He told me several times, 'If I go back to Russia, they will kill me.'" It is understood that British police are not treating the case as terrorist related, but detectives have liaised with officers from the counter-terrorism command. Officers from Trident –who investigate all shootings in London – are running the inquiry.
The last high-profile attack on a Russian citizen in the UK brought relations between the two countries to breaking point.
The murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in 2006, was treated as a state supported assassination.
Litvinenko's death from poisoning by radioactive polonium-210 sparked a diplomatic battle between the UK and Russia. Moscow has refused to extradite one of its intelligence agents, Andrei Lugovoi, whom the UK suspects of a role in the poisoning.
At this stage, it is understood there is nothing to suggest that the attack on Gorbuntsov was in the same category as the Litvinenko case. Scotland Yard said the victim had been shot as he went into his block of flats in Byng Street on Tuesday night.
The gunman, who was wearing dark clothing and was about 6ft tall, was seen running away down Westferry Road after a number of shots had rung out.
A Yard spokesman said: "Officers and London ambulance service attended and a man, aged in his 40s, was taken to hospital. His condition is described as critical but stable.
"Detectives from the Trident gang crime command are investigating and are treating the shooting as attempted murder. They are keen to speak to anyone who was in the area at the time or who may have information about the incident."
There have been no arrests over the shooting.
Gorbuntsov also had legal problems in Moldova. The businessman bought Universalbank in 2008 but the bank's shares were suspended in March 2011 because of $5bn (£3.15bn) of debt owed to several Russian firms. The national bank of Moldova withdrew the bank's licence in February.
Moldovan prosecutors wanted Gorbuntsov on a number of charges including seizure of a bank and stealing bank funds. A warrant for his arrest was issued in the former Soviet republic.
"All the main proof of his guilt has been gathered," said prosecutor Viorel Rasetsky.
Gorbuntsov has denied any wrongdoing.