Pupil of British school killed in Mafia shooting

A PUPIL at a British boarding school has been shot in a suspected contract killing in Moscow, while on a visit to her home country.

Elizaveta Slesareva, 15, was killed along with her parents on the outskirts of the Russian capital during her half-term break from St Peter's School in York. The attack is one of the most audacious in a series of Mafia-style hits that have returned to haunt a country that during the 1990s earned the epithet "the Wild East".

Elizaveta was in a Mercedes Benz with her parents, Alexander and Natalya, and a seven-year-old sister in the south-east of the Russian capital when the killers struck on 16 October. The family were on their way to the Stary Oskol monastery, 400 miles from Moscow.

The killers opened fire from an Audi A8, raking the car with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a pistol. They then machine-gunned a jeep, in which an 80-year-old nun who was joining the family on the pilgrimage was travelling. The nun and three men in the jeep, either her relatives or bodyguards, were wounded.

Elizaveta's parents died in the car and she died later in hospital. Her sister was injured but survived.

Mr Slesareva had feared for his life since May 2004, when a bank he controlled, Sodbiznesbank, collapsed, triggering a financial crisis. It left behind huge debts and was being investigated for fraud.

Elizaveta had confided to school-friends that she feared for her life and did not want to return to her homeland. The teenager, who arrived at the school in September to take ten GCSEs, had spoken about the need to have bodyguards while in Moscow.

The killers sped away, then dumped the car and set fire to it, tossing the machine gun and a pistol into the flames. Police have yet to trace the original owners.

Elizaveta was among growing numbers of children from Moscow's elite being sent to British boarding schools, as Russia's school system deteriorates. Her father was part of a small group of tycoons who grew wealthy during the chaos that followed the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

While Moscow now boasts more billionaires than New York, the rest of Russia remains mired in poverty, causing huge resentment against the freewheeling tycoons among the millions of ordinary, struggling Russians.

Elizaveta's headmaster, Richard Smyth, was reported as saying: "She was a bright, gifted, beautiful girl. Everyone is in a state of disbelief and shock and sadness."