Russian prosecutors charged a retired army colonel on Friday with trying to assassinate Anatoly Chubais, head of the state power monopoly and a leading economic reformer. The Moscow regional prosecutor's office said Vladimir Kvachkov, a 57-year-old explosives expert and veteran of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, was also charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Chubais, chief executive of Unified Energy System, narrowly escaped an ambush outside Moscow on March 17 when his convoy was the target of a roadside bomb blast and automatic gunfire.
"Charges were presented under the article (in the criminal code) on attempted assassination of two or more people," a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.
Chubais, 49, survived unharmed and later said he knew who might have carried out the attack. He refused to publicly name those who wanted him dead, but promised to co-operate with investigators.
There was widespread speculation the attack might have been connected to Chubais's drive to reform UES by introducing market competition to the world's fourth-largest power network.
Chubais, the author of Russia's 1990s privatisations which made two dozen well-connected "oligarchs" fabulously rich while millions of Russians slid into poverty, is one of the country's best known - and least loved - public figures.
Kvachkov was picked up by police on the day of the attack, which took place about 40 km (25 miles) west of Moscow as Chubais travelled to work from his country home.
Police traced a green Saab registered in his wife's name which was seen by witnesses near the scene.
Kvachkov has refused to testify, but in written answers to questions put to him by the Izvestia daily, he said he was innocent, although he did admit making a stop near the scene on the day of the attack.
Kvachkov's lawyer, Alevtin Morshchevsky, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying he had agreed with prosecutors not to divulge details of the case to the press.
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