Unidentified assailants have killed the man leading the fight against organised crime in the southern Russian Kabardino-Balkaria region, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Sunday.
Another police officer was also killed and a third was wounded when the armed assailants attacked the car they were travelling in late on Saturday in the regional capital of Nalchik, Tass said.
"In the course of an exchange of fire, in which the officers were heavily outgunned by the assailants, the head of UBOP (department in charge of tackling organised crime) Anatoly Kyarov and chief detective Albert Rakhayev were killed," Tass quoted a local police spokesman as saying. "Junior detective Tatuyev was also wounded and rushed to hospital," the spokesman added.
Kabardino-Balkaria is one of the regions surrounding Chechnya, where a separatist insurgency means attacks against police are not unusual.