Russian editor shot deat over crime reports

The chief editor of a newspaper in central Russia was shot and killed outside his home in what colleagues said today was a contract killing in retaliation for his paper’s coverage of organised crime.

Valery Ivanov, 33, was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Togliatti Review and a member of the city council in Togliatti, on the Volga River about 550 miles south east of Moscow.

He was shot seven times on April 29 while in his car, which was parked just outside his apartment building, the Togliatti Review reported.

The newspaper called it a contract killing and said it knew who was responsible and had informed the authorities.

The Kommersant national newspaper reported today that police also viewed the attack as a contract hit connected to Ivanov’s newspaper work.

The newspaper had written frequently in recent months about local criminal groups in Togliatti, home to Russia’s biggest carmaker, Avtovaz.

Ivanov had also spoken out against corruption by local officials and against pressure on journalists in post-Soviet Russia such as criminal threats or tax raids against news organizations critical of the authorities.

‘‘This is the tragic price that today’s Russian society pays for media freedom,’’ he said in a recent speech.

His newspaper, in reporting on his death, said: ‘‘Valery had many friends and many enemies. But we never thought that a journalist could be killed for his convictions, because he had a point of view that is impossible to change with bribes or threats.’’

A total of 17 journalists were killed in Russia last year in connection with their professional activities, according to a leading Russian organization championing media freedom, the Glasnost Defence Foundation.