MOSCOW – Moscow police say a gunman has wounded Vyacheslav Ivankov, whom U.S. prosecutors have called a godfather of Russian organized crime.
A police duty officer said that Ivankov was taken to the hospital with an abdomen wound after the Tuesday night shooting. The officer says on customary condition of anonymity that Ivankov was shot as he came out of cafe in a north Moscow neighborhood.
Russian news agencies say the shot apparently came from a sniper rifle.
Ivankov served a prison term in Russia, then moved to the United States where he was arrested in 1995 and convicted of trying to extort millions of dollars from an investment firm run by Russian emigres in New York.
He was extradited to Russia in 2004 to face murder charges, but was acquitted.
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