Chief Editor of Russian edition of the Forbes magazine Paul Khlebnikov was wounded to death with shot at his head outside his office in Moscow at night of July 9.
He died in the ambulance car.

The police believe that the murder of Paul Khlebnikov resulted from his work in the magazine, Echo of Moscow reported.

According to the investigation, the two killers started firing at the journalist when he was going out of his office. They made 10 shots, 4 bullets hit the journalist. The criminals escaped in VAZ-2115 vehicle of dark color. The police conducted operation to capture the criminals, but it produced no results.

Police have found the VAZ car in which those who killed Pavel Khlebnikov escaped, the press secretary of the Moscow prosecutor's office, Svetlana Petrenko, told Itar-Tass.

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It is with the deepest sadness that I inform you that Paul Klebnikov, 41, editor of Forbes Russia, was murdered in Moscow this evening. He was reportedly shot four times as he left work and died shortly thereafter.

Paul became the first editor of Forbes Russia at the magazine's launch in April 2004. Forbes Russia is a joint venture with Axel Springer.

Paul joined Forbes in 1989 and rose to the position of senior editor at the magazine, specializing in Russian and Eastern European politics and economics, before assuming editorship of Forbes Russia.

Paul was the author of Godfather of the Kremlin (September 2000), a biography of Boris Berezovsky, a Russian tycoon.

Paul embraced the opportunity to become the first editor of Forbes Russia. He knew Russia well. It was a country he loved deeply.

Paul was a superb reporter--courageous, energetic, ever-curious. I eagerly anticipated reading his stories. The information was always fresh, insightful, fascinating. He exemplified the finest traditions of our profession and served his readers well.

All of us at Forbes are devastated by what has happened and send our condolences and prayers to his wife and family.

Investigators probing the murder of Paul (Pavel) Klebnikov, editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, believe the crime was related to the victim's professional activities, a Moscow prosecutor's office spokesman told Interfax on Saturday.

"Taking into account the special significance of the criminal case, a decision was made that the case would be passed from the Moscow Northwestern district prosecutor's office to the city prosecutor's office for investigation," he said.

The Moscow prosecutor's office told Interfax that the capital's prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev ordered the Klebnikov case to be handled by the gangsterism and murder investigation department. "This is because the investigators from that department have gained vast experience in investigating contract killings," they said.

The Moscow Prosecutor's Office believes there is a direct link between the murder of Paul Khlebnikov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine, and his investigative reporting, spokespeople for the Prosecutor told RIA Novosti Saturday. Khlebnikov was fatally wounded outside his office late July 9, and he died from the wounds in hospital.

Prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev has reportedly decided to hand the case over to the murder and banditry department of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office. Investigators of this department have vast experience in probing contact killings. Criminal proceedings in connection with Paul Khlebnikov's murder have been launched as pursuant to Article 105 of the Russian Penal Code.

Before being taken to hospital, the journalist told a by-stander that he had been shot at by a man he had seen before. Accounts by other eye-witnesses indicate that Paul Khlebnikov was followed by a dark-colored car. The driver stopped the car ten to fifteen meters away, opened the left-hand window and fired several shots at his victim.

Investigators who worked at the crime scene found nine 9-millimeter shells, one bullet of the same caliber, and other relevant objects, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office says in a press release.