MOSCOW – The arrest of two Chechen men in connection with the murder this summer of New York born Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, lent credence to the theory that he had been targeted for writing a book that cast Chechen rebels in a bad light and linked them with organized crime.

Moscow’s police chief, Vladimir Pronin, said yesterday that officers overnight had arrested “two Chechens involved in Paul Klebnikov’s murder.” The American was gunned down outside his offices in July.

The news agency RIA Novosti quoted a police source saying the two men had been detained in connection with an unrelated kidnapping. Three guns were seized from the men, and ballistic tests on one of the pistols showed that the gun was the one used to kill Klebnikov, according to Novosti.

The news agency reported that the men denied any involvement in the attack on Klebnikov and said they had received the pistol from other persons.

The American journalist’s murder shocked even Russia, where contract killings are routine and local journalists who investigate corruption or organized crime are often killed. Speculation swirled about the motive for killing Klebnikov, 41, an American citizen born in New York to a family of Russian immigrants.

Klebnikov’s book, “Conversations With a Barbarian,” was based on interviews with Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, a former deputy prime minister in the Chechen separatist government and allegedly the onetime head of powerful Chechen criminal gangs operating in Moscow.

The publisher of Forbes in Russia, Leonid Bershidsky, told Ekho Moskvy radio yesterday that police had been investigating possible Chechen involvement in the murder.

“Earlier we heard they were looking at a Chechen link to this case, taking into account that Klebnikov wrote a book about Chechnya and terrorism in the form of an interview with one of the field commanders,” he said.

In a telephone call to the Associated Press in New York, Klebnikov’s brother Michael read a statement from the family saying they would “wait to see the incontrovertible evidence that the individuals apprehended today in Moscow are indeed responsible for Paul’s murder.” The statement continued: “In any case, this would be only a first step to identifying, apprehending, and convicting those responsible for ordering his assassination.”

Other theories for the murder have focused on Klebnikov’s writing about the often murky world of Russian business. Klebnikov was considered one of the leading experts on Russia’s business elite.

Shortly after launching the Forbes edition in April, Klebnikov published a list of the 100 wealthiest people in Russia, shining the spotlight on many businessmen who would rather avoid publicity. He had said he had received several threats after publishing the list.

Klebnikov had also made an enemy of Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, who now lives in exile in London, with a 1996 article in Forbes calling Mr. Berezovsky the “Godfather of the Kremlin.” Mr. Berezovsky sued Forbes for libel over the article, complaining it connected him with the murder of prominent Russian television journalist Vladislav Listyev. The suit was withdrawn after Forbes acknowledged there was no evidence of Mr. Berezovsky’s involvement. Klebnikov had been investigating Listyev’s death at the time of his killing and was planning to publish a book on the case.