Russian gangster Grandpa Hassan shot dead by sniper in Moscow

GlobalPost

Russia’s top gangster, widely known as Grandpa Hassan, was shot dead by a sniper as he was leaving a restaurant in Moscow on Wednesday.

The crime boss, whose real name is Aslan Usoyan, died in hospital, the BBC reported.

Pravda.ru said the incident happened near the Carriage Row restaurant in central Moscow.

Usoyan's killer was “lying in wait in a building opposite the restaurant on Povarskaya Street,” the BBC said.

In a December 2011 article on Russian organized crime, the Financial Times described Usoyan as the “highest ranking mafia boss in Russia.”

Usoyan, Kurdish by nationality, survived two previous assassination attempts in 1998 and 2010, The News Tribe reported.

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