MOSCOW — Anatoly B. Chubais, one of Russia's most prominent business and political leaders, survived an apparent assassination attempt unscathed Thursday when assailants detonated a roadside bomb and then fired at his armored car as he commuted to work on a forested highway.
Chubais was the architect of Russia's controversial post-Soviet privatizations of state assets and now is a leader of the pro-market Union of Right Forces party. He also heads the state-controlled electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems, the nation's seventh-largest company, with annual revenue of $21.6 billion. A few hours after the attack, the 49-year-old businessman said at a news conference that he had been aware of a plan to kill him. But Chubais declined to reveal whom he suspected.
"I have an idea of who could have taken out a contract on me," he said. "I had reason to expect something like this and had taken measures to strengthen security.... I need to have him caught, so don't ask me to say who he is."
Police quickly located a green Saab believed to have been a getaway car. Thursday evening, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted unnamed police sources as saying that the husband of the car's owner had been arrested and that explosives had been found in his home. He was identified as a retired military sabotage specialist.
Chubais also issued a written statement pledging to continue his work in business and politics. He has been part of an effort by pro-democracy leaders to form a unified movement to contest parliamentary elections in 2007 and presidential balloting in 2008. "The main thing I can say today is that I will work twice as hard on everything I have been doing to reform the nation's electricity industry and consolidate the democratic forces," he said in the statement.
Politicians and analysts offered a variety of possible motives for the attack. Some linked it to Chubais' leading role in planned economic reforms aimed at introducing competition to the power industry. Others thought it was more likely related to politics.
The Union of Right Forces, a party he helped found, issued a statement saying that in all of his posts, Chubais has worked to make Russia "a truly free and powerful democratic country." It implied that his attackers opposed that goal.
"We cannot name the organizers or perpetrators of the crime, but we understand perfectly well which forces in the country find Chubais a hindrance," it said.
