Russian mafia leader injured

ONE of the most powerful godfathers of the Russian mafia has been seriously wounded by a sniper in central Moscow, investigators said yesterday.

Vyacheslav Ivankov, who has been named by the United States as a senior Russian mobster, was shot in the stomach as he left a Thai restaurant on Tuesday after apparently mediating between two rival criminal groups, Russian news agencies said.

Ivankov, known inside Russia by his nickname Yaponchik – or the Japanese – spent much of the 1990s in a US jail. He was extradited to Russia in 2004 to face murder charges but was acquitted by a local court and freed.