ST. PETERSBURG -- Dmitry Filipov, a prominent St. Petersburg businessman, was in critical condition Monday night after being caught by a bomb explosion at the entrance to his elite apartment building Saturday evening.
Filipov, 54, suffered fractures and burns when a bomb went off at the entrance to 13 Tverskaya Ulitsa at about 9 p.m. Saturday.
Two security guards who were accompanying him were also injured.
Among other elite tenants at 13 Tverskaya Ulitsa are First Deputy Prime Minister Vadim Gustov f until recently governor of the Leningrad region f and Vitaly Klimov, chairman of the region's Legislative Assembly.
Filipov holds board seats at several companies, including chairman of the board of directors of Bank Menatep in St. Petersburg and chairman of a leading local government organization, said Viktor Vasilyev, a spokesman for Menatep.
Vasilyev declined to comment on possible reasons for the attack Monday.
Filipov also worked as head of the St. Petersburg Tax Inspectorate until 1993, and is a former head of the St. Petersburg Fuel Company.
In 1996 he ran against Gustov and others for the post of Leningrad region governor, and he served as a deputy to the St. Petersburg legislature from 1991 to 1993.
According to Interfax, the bomb exploded when one of Filipov's bodyguards opened the door to Filipov's apartment building.
The bomb was probably radio-controlled and was equivalent to 200 grams of TNT, said Tatyana Vasilyeva, a spokesman at the Prosecutor's Office, on Monday.
The bomb also damaged the apartment door, the elevator and Filipov's car, which was parked outside the entrance to the apartment block.
The bodyguards are now in satisfactory condition, but Filipov is still in danger after an operation Saturday night. He remains in critical condition at the Military Medical Academy of St. Petersburg.
A duty nurse who declined to give her name said Monday evening said Filipov was in intensive care and that his condition was grave.
Vasilyeva would not speculate on the reasons behind the attack.
"We are looking into all the possibilities without stressing any one particular area," she said Monday.
She would not say whether the case was being treated as an attempted murder.
Assuming it was a contract murder attempt, the attack is the third high-profile hit on a St. Petersburg public official in weeks.
Two weeks ago, a sniper killed Viktor Smirnov, a former aide to a Liberal Democratic Party of Russia State Duma deputy f shooting him through the window as he stood in his kitchen.
Just days earlier, a radio-controlled bomb set on the balcony of his apartment killed Yevgeny Agaryov, a City Hall official in charge of St. Petersburg's cemeteries.
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