Russian tycoon, once jailed for spying, gunned down

MOSCOW — A Russian tycoon who organized a Michael Jackson concert in Moscow, was once jailed for spying in Israel and hired female U.S. basketball stars to compete in his homeland was slain Monday by gunmen in the capital, the Vesti television news program reported.

Shabattai Kalmanovich was killed near Moscow's Novodevichy monastery when assailants in a Lada sedan pulled up to his black Mercedes-Benz and opened fire. He died instantly; his driver was injured.

"Submachine guns and shotguns were used in the attack," Moscow prosecutor's office investigator Anatoly Bagmet told Vesti.

The attackers fired at least 20 rounds at the car, a police source told RIA-Novosti news agency.

Kalmanovich, 60, had invested millions of dollars into the Spartak, a women's professional basketball team that won the EuroLeague Women's title the last three seasons. He hired stars of the Women's National Basketball Association, including Seattle Storm stars Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, to play for his team during the American league's offseason, paying them as much as 10 times their U.S. salary.

During the 1990s, Kalmanovich organized tours to Russia of such artists as Jackson, Liza Minnelli and Jose Carreras, according to the Interfax news service.

Born in Lithuania during Soviet rule, Kalmanovich immigrated to Israel during the early 1970s. He was arrested in 1986, convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and served nearly six years in an Israeli prison. He returned to Russia after his release and went into the construction business.

Igor Prelin, a former KGB colonel and spokesman, said Monday he always had doubted that Kalmanovich was a full-fledged Soviet spy.

"He was 22 when he emigrated to Israel so he couldn't, by definition, be a professional spy," Prelin said. "We did use the Jewish immigration at the time to plant some agents in Israel and in the West by compelling young people willing to leave for Israel to agree to help the KGB in the future on condition that they be allowed to leave the Soviet Union.

"We didn't do anything to help Kalmanovich get an earlier release" from prison, he added. "That happened mostly thanks to a huge campaign of the Russian Jewish community at the time."

Adolf Shayevich, the chief rabbi of Russia and an acquaintance of Kalmanovich, said the tycoon "was a remarkable person and an active member of the Jewish community who attended all the Jewish holidays in our synagogue.

He possessed an amazing collection of Judaica, definitely the biggest in Russia, very rare Jewish scrolls and other most interesting objects.

"This is all simply horrible," Shayevich said. "In the center of Moscow!"