German Gorbuntsov ‘told friends he feared for his life’

“When we had lunch and German talked about the Audi, he said he was
worried that he might be attacked in London, and he asked what I thought,”
Mr Antonov, 36, recalled in a telephone interview.

“I said: ‘German, it’s simply impossible. This is the safest town in the
world. The whole city is covered by CCTV. Nobody can touch you here.’
Clearly, I was mistaken. He was shot the next day.”

Mr Gorbuntsov is being treated at an unidentified hospital in Britain under
armed guard. Doctors reportedly brought him out of a medicated coma on
Friday.

“Now German is conscious, he can talk, but he’s still too weak for
questioning,” a source close to the banker told Russian media. “The
doctors say that representatives of Scotland Yard can speak with him this
week.”

The former banker’s lawyer and friends believe he was attacked in revenge for
testimony which he gave to Russian prosecutors in February indicating that
two former business associates were behind an attack on Alexander Antonov,
another financier and the son of Vladimir Antonov, who survived an
assassination attempt in Moscow in 2009.

Alexander Antonov, 61, lost two fingers in the attack but recovered, despite
being sprayed with bullets. He said he suspected the same two men of
organising the attacks on him and on Mr Gorbuntsov.

“After Mr Gorbuntsov gave his testimony, we were both threatened,”
he said. Mr Antonov Snr said a person known to him – whom The Sunday
Telegraph
cannot name for legal reasons – had told him on the telephone: “We
didn’t kill you last time, but we’ll finish you off this time.”

Mr Antonov Snr added: “German also told me that he was getting threats by
telephone and email, although he did not give concrete details.”

Alexander Antonov was granted an armed guard to ensure his safety in Russia
last week and Vladimir Antonov has been given protection by officers from
Scotland Yard.

Three Chechen hitmen were jailed for the attack on Mr Antonov Snr but the
people who ordered the attack were never found.

Vladimir Antonov claimed in his interview with The Sunday Telegraph
that the investigation into the attack on his father also revealed a plot to
assassinate him. “They planned to do it at the same time,” he
said.

“Fortunately for us, unfortunately for them, they were unsuccessful. I
drove a bullet-proof car in Russia, so it’s quite difficult to kill me
there. I was careful.”

Mr Gorbuntsov’s wife, Larisa, on Thursday called for anyone with information
regarding the attempted murder of her husband to contact police. “This
is an act of pure unexpected violence, which should be treated as so,”
she said. “Please come forward so that justice can prevail.”

Scotland Yard has said it is working with Russian investigators over the
attack, in the first such cooperation over a serious crime since the
poisoning of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

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