Russian banker and his family brutally assassinated on the way to monastery

Criminals attacked the banker's SUV with heavy automatic fire, killing the businessman's wife and a 15-year-old daughter 

The former owner of two Russian banks, Alexander Slesarev, his wife Natalia and daughter Elizaveta, were assassinated in Moscow yesterday, October 16.

A source from the Moscow's law-enforcement authorities told Interfax that the assassination could be connected with the withdrawal of bank licenses and bank fraud.

The car, from which the banker was attacked and killed, was subsequently found in the Moscow region. The assassins left Makarov and Kalashnikov guns in the Audi A8 car, set the vehicle ablaze and vanished from the scene.

The police found the banker's Mitsubishi Pajero on a road, some 30 kilometers far from Moscow. The car's windshield was riddled with bullets. There was a Mercedes car found standing about 300 meters afar. A family couple and two girls were found in the Mercedes vehicle: the adults were shot dead, while the two girls of seven and fifteen years of age were hospitalized with severe gunshot wounds. The elder girl died of wounds at a hospital later. Three other wounded individuals were found in the Mitsubishi SUV.

It became known later that Alexander Slesarev, who is considered to be the shadow owner of two Russian banks, which went bankrupt in the summer of the current year, was traveling to a monastery in the Moscow region.

Investigators believe that the businessman was killed in connection with the scandalous bankruptcy of the two banks, which he chaired, Sodbusinessbank and Credittrust Bank. The bankruptcy of the banks was accompanied with laundering several billions of rubles, Newsru wrote.

The president of the Association of Russian Banks, Garegin Torusyan, said that Alexander Slesarev was known for his highly negative reputation in the banking community of Russia. “His assassination is probably connected with his business activities. He would always try to avoid any contacts with both creditors and investigators,” Torusyan said.

The banker and his family were killed on October 16 as they were traveling to the town of Stary Oskol, where the banker was going to visit a monastery. Two relatives and a 80-year-old nun were accompanying the Slesarevs in the ride.

When an Audi A8 vehicle overtook the banker's Mitsubishi, the criminals opened heavy automatic fire on the Mitsubishi and Mercedes cars. The businessman and his wife were shot dead immediately; one of the family's two daughters, the family's niece, and the 80-year-old nun died at a hospital later.