The shooting of Vyacheslav Ivankov, known as "Yaponchik", or "Little Japanese", could have been anything from a botched assassination to a warning over Russia's newly illegal gambling industry - or even an attempt to humiliate the notorious crime boss.
Police have launched an attempted murder probe after the 69-year-old was shot in the stomach by a sniper in a stolen van parked opposite the Thai Elephant restaurant on Khoroshevskoye Shosse on Tuesday and remains in a serious condition in hospital.
Officials say the gun's targeting sight was broken, explaining how an otherwise professional hit failed to kill its target, RIA Novosti reports.
Other theories suggest "Yaponchik" had been called to intervene in a dispute between gambling gangs, one of whom chose to fire a literal warning shot at him.
Meanwhile colourful tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda believes the aim may have been to shoot him "in the groin" and "humiliate" him over a "personal" matter.
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