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“Londongrad” on edge after attack on Russian banker

Reuters

A failed hit on a former Russian banker in London has sent a chill through Russian immigrant circles and shone an unwelcome spotlight on a hidden criminal underworld encroaching on the British capital.

The shooting also raised concerns Britain might be turning into a playground for Russian mobsters as gangland violence appears to spill over Russian borders into European capitals.

London is the chosen home for many Russians seeking a haven from the cut-throat world of their homeland where, 20 years after the Soviet collapse, they have little faith in the rule of law.

Now, some exiles say, few are safe in a city known affectionately as “Londongrad” to many of its Russian inhabitants.

“Everybody is trying to figure out who their enemies might be,” said Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a business tycoon who fled to London in 2008 after falling out with the government.

“You know, if they want to kill me, they’ll kill me,” added Chichvarkin, whose mother died in mysterious circumstances in Moscow in 2010.

To some, it was like a classic tale of gangland thuggery, with echoes of the plot from some mafia thriller.

German Gorbuntsov, 45, was shot five times with a pistol by a lone gunman as he entered a block of serviced apartments in east London on March 20, the Canary Wharf financial district’s cluster of skyscrapers towering high above the quiet back street.