MOSCOW – One of Russia’s most prominent and powerful figures survived a daring assassination attempt yesterday by camouflaged hitmen who detonated a bomb near his car and sprayed his convoy with automatic gunfire. The attack underscored the violence and lawlessness that remains – despite some progress – a hallmark of Russia’s political and business climate.

Anatoly Chubais, the 49-year-old head of Russia’s state-controlled electricity monopoly and one of the architects of post-Soviet economic reforms, said at a press conference after the attack that he had been aware of a plot to kill him.

“I have an idea who could have taken out a contract on me,” a shaken Mr. Chubais said. “We had reason to believe this might happen.”

Mr. Chubais rose to prominence – the vast majority of Russians would say notoriety – as one of the “young reformers” who spearheaded the privatization of state-owned property that handed swaths of the economy to a handful of well-connected businessmen following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mr. Chubais, a one-time chief of staff to President Yeltsin, was blamed for the huge drop in living standards that followed. To this day, he is frequently described as the most hated man in Russia.

Mr. Chubais remains both a powerful economic figure as chief executive of Unified Energy Systems (UES) and a political leader as co-founder of the liberal Union of Right Forces party.

Mr. Chubais wouldn’t say yesterday whether he believed the attack was motivated by his politics or by his controversial plan to introduce competition to Russia’s state-run electricity market.

“The main thing I can say today is that everything I have done – regarding both the reform of the country’s energy sector and the unification of democratic forces – I will continue to do with redoubled energy.”

Mr. Chubais told reporters he was on his way to work from his home in a leafy Moscow suburb when a roadside bomb exploded near his two-car convoy and gunmen opened fire with automatic rifles. After being hit in the windshield, hood, and front tire, Mr. Chubais’s armored BMW sped away as his bodyguards in the second car opened fire on the assailants. The attackers escaped into a nearby forest. Police said no one was hurt in the skirmish and launched a manhunt for the gunmen.

Mr. Chubais’s allies in Russia’s liberal political circles – who accuse Mr. Putin of presiding over a return to Soviet-style repression – were quick to label the attack as politically motivated.

“For me, it is completely obvious that this assassination attempt has a political character and is not connected to the reforms of UES,” a party colleague, Boris Nemtsov, said.

But experts were doubtful that politics played a role. An independent political analyst, Andrei Piontkovsky, said it was more likely that a powerful figure in the energy business had ordered the attack.

“Chubais is the driving force behind a reform that will see a lot of people lose money and power. With him out of the picture, the reform would have been abandoned,” Mr. Piontkovsky said.