Moscow's Rossiya Hotel director murdered in "contract killing"

Russian police are investigating the murder that took place on Friday morning of the director of Moscow's biggest hotel, the Rossiya, Russian Ekho Moskvy radio reported.

The radio said Yevgeniy Tsimbalistov died instantly after being shot several times as he left his home.

"The criminal case has been instituted on the murder which police described as an apparent contract killing," ITAR-TASS news agency said, in a separate report.

The former director of the Rossiya Hotel was also killed a few years ago, it added.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.