Killing bid 'not linked' to Russian's reform work

MOSCOW - Russian businessman Anatoly Chubais has denied last week's attempt to kill him was linked to his work reforming state power monopoly Unified Energy System.

Attempts to reform the huge electricity provider repeatedly bumped into vested interests, but Chubais said his business opponents were not behind Thursday's assassination attempt just outside Moscow.

"I think there are no links here and cannot be," he said. "With these reforms, we passed through a difficult period of discussions with the Government, which took the important decision to completely support us."

Chubais is one of the best-known public figures in Russia and widely disliked as the architect of 1990s privatisations that put much of the country's wealth into the hands of a few "oligarchs". He left politics to overhaul UES in 1998.

The attack on Chubais was a reminder to investors of the risks faced by businessmen in Russia, where assassinations remain common despite a more stable political climate.

- REUTERS