A Russian businessman who backed Ukraine’s prime minister in the disputed 2004 elections was shot dead by a sniper outside a Kiev court on Tuesday, the Financial Times daily reports.

Maksym Kurochkin, a reputed Moscow-based organised crime ringleader held in connection with corruption charges, was shot minutes after a Kiev judge turned down his plea to be released on bail and police had escorted him out of the court. According to Kommersant Ukraine daily, Kurochkin was killed by a single bullet in the hart fired by a sniper from the roof of a nearby building. The bullet went through the businessman’s body and wounded a police officer. The unidentified assassin escaped.

Mr. Kurochkin, who backed the presidential candidacy in 2004 of Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s prime minister, said in court yesterday a contract had been placed on his life. He pleaded to be released on bail, saying: “I do not want to die.”

The plea was an apparent expression of his distrust in the ability of Ukrainian police to protect him after his bodyguards were gunned down recently.

Mr. Kurochkin, nicknamed Mad Max, had been linked to several high-profile investments in Ukraine including a luxury hotel business and a disputed open-air market. He was detained on extortion charges last November at Kiev’s international airport.

The trial, which began last month, had been closely watched because of his ties to Mr. Yanukovich.

During the 2004 presidential election campaign, Mr. Kurochkin served as director of the Russian Club, a Kiev-based think-tank made up of Russians who backed Mr. Yanukovich over the pro-western Viktor Yushchenko.

Mr. Yushchenko was propelled to the presidency by the Orange Revolution, in which there were massive protests against a fraudulent vote that had given victory to Mr. Yanukovich.

Mr. Kurochkin narrowly escaped an attempt on his life during the 2004 elections when his car was blown up.

Opposition leaders rushed to label the murder as severely damaging to the country’s reputation, saying it raised questions about the ability to protect witnesses and accused criminals held in custody.

“The killing of businessmen, questionable suicides, unsolved high-profile crimes all give grounds to say that Ukraine is returning to the early 1990s when the majority of conflicts in business were settled with arms,” the Yulia Tymoshenko opposition bloc said in a statement.

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