The Russian gunned down in Canary Wharf in March has proclaimed that he knows who shot him and wants the Russian government, led by Vladimir Putin, to investigate his attempted murder.
German Gorbuntsov, who was gunned down on the streets in Docklands, has said in an interview with the Independentthat former business partners of his, who have links with the government, arranged the attack.
Speaking from a hospital room guarded by 20 armed guards, Gorbuntsov says that while he thinks former partners were behind his attack, he does not hold much faith in the government to properly investigate the case.
"The evidence I have is enough to put them behind bars," he said. "Of course they have good connections, but I'd like to believe there is justice in Russia."
Gorbuntsov claims that he was shot because he was due to give evidence at the investigation into the failed assassination attempt of former Portsmouth Football Club owner Alexander Antonov, another of his former business partners.
Explaining why he thought that he was being targeted, Gorbuntsov says that: "They decided that if there is no person, there's no problem."
After the Antonov attack, the banker fled to the UK for his own safety, claiming that the UK is "a country where there is justice, and where the police look into things properly," compared to his homeland.
The Independent writes that the backstory behind both attacks is convoluted:
The story involves loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, links to controversial figures in Chechnya, and a possible huge defrauding of the Russian state railways conglomerate. As with the majority of wealthy Russian businessmen, there are suggestions of powerful backers within the government and the FSB security services, successor to the KGB.
The banker concludes by saying that while he is on the path to recovery – including learning to walk again after months in bed – he does not believe that danger to him has passed.