MOSCOW (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a former KGB spy turned basketball
tycoon in his car Monday a few hundred meters from the Moscow office of
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, officials said.

Shabtai von Kalmanovic, who went on to organize a Michael Jackson concert
in Moscow and help two clubs win Europe's top basketball title, died at
the scene, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

More than 20 shots were fired at Kalmanovic's Mercedes from a silver Lada
a few hundred meters from the White House, the seat of Russia's government
headquarters, state Russian television channel Vesti reported.

Kalmanovic's driver, who was wounded, gave chase to the attackers but had
to abandon it because of his wounds, investigators said.

Kalmanovic spent five years in an Israeli prison for passing secret
military technology to the KGB before being released in 1993, state media
reported.

Returning to Russia, Kalmanovic set up a market in the center of Moscow
and helped organize concerts by Tom Jones, Liza Minnelli and Michael
Jackson in Russia, the reports said.

The attack was likely a contract killing, senior investigator Anatoly
Bagmet said, quoted by RIA news agency.

A citizen of Israel, Russia and Lithuania, Kalmanovic's financial support
helped Lithuanian basketball club Zalgiris Kaunas win the Euroleague, the
continent's top basketball competition, in 1999.

He helped Spartak Moscow win the women's Euroleague in each of the past
three years.

Moscow and other Russian cities were hit by a wave of gangland-style
shootings after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union as businessmen sought to
settle disputes and carve up profits.

Although less frequent in recent years, contract killings still plague the
Russian capital.

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They must have gotten stiffed on MJ concert tickets.