Former Russian sports official linked to Olympic scandal killed

A gunman shot and killed a former Russian sports official who was allegedly linked to the fixing of figure skating results at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Tuesday, citing police officials.

Chevalier Nusuyev, former president of the Russian youth sports federation, died shortly after being taken to a hospital following the attack in southwest Moscow late Monday, the report said. The unidentified assailant fired on him as he left his office, then escaped in a car.

Moscow police did not immediately confirm the killing. Nusuyev was allegedly linked to reputed Russian mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, who in 2003 escaped extradition from Italy to the United States on charges of fixing the figure skating results.

Tokhtakhounov spent nearly a year in a Venice, Italy, prison until June 2003 on U.S. charges that he helped secure a gold medal for Russia in the pairs competition at Salt Lake City in exchange for a victory by the French ice dancing team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, reports the AP.