The Man Who Knew Too Much

48 Hours Mystery Reports On Murder Of U.S. Journalist In Moscow

(CBS)  Still, it was a shock to many when Klebnikov's fledgling Forbes Russia published a list of the 100 wealthiest Russians -- complete with their financial details. Heading the list was an oil tycoon with a cool $15.2 billion.

"The Forbes report on the 100 richest Russians was actually a fairly scandalous publication," says Carl Shreck, an American who covers crime for the English language Moscow Times. He thought the list was asking for trouble. "As far as the business world is concerned, as a general rule, people don't like to officially announce how much money they actually have."

In a 2001 interview with CBS News, Klebnikov blasted rich Russians for taking their fast-made billions of the 1990s, and moving the cash out of the country.

Forbes' new ranking of the rich got a lot of attention in Moscow. Yelena Khanga, an Oprah-like afternoon talk show host in Moscow, invited Klebnikov to be a guest on her show.

"He charmed the whole team," she says. "Paul was smart, and the way he cared about the subject, he was able to win the hearts of our television."

Khanga admired Klebnikov and was becoming increasingly concerned about what he was investigating. "I asked Paul how dangerous were the articles that he was working on," says Khanga. "And Paul didn't hesitate for a moment. He said that everything was under control. He was sure what he was doing, and he had absolutely no fears."

But even Khanga wonders if Klebnikov fully grasped how complicated Russia had become: "He was too American. He still didn't get the sense of what's dangerous, what's scary. And probably he crossed somebody. ...I guess there is an expression, 'If you play with fire, you get burned.' I'm afraid that's the case."

It seems hard to believe that a rich businessman would murder simply for being outed as rich. But Franchetti says in Russia today, it's a plausible scenario: "What people said at the time was that it was dangerous and provocative thing to do because it's almost an invitation to the tax police and to the prosecutor to come and investigate."

Klebnikov tried to put a positive spin on it when he'd rolled out the names in the magazine: "All the participants of this list are happy to be entering this new stage."