The jury of the Moscow Region Court found Col. Vladimir Kvachkov not guilty in the 2005 assassination attempt of Anatoly Chubais, former head of the UES electricity giant and architect of radical post-Soviet reforms.
Nine jury members voted "not guilty" on Saturday, with three "guilty" votes.
As a result, the jury's verdict stated that prosecutors failed to present enough evidence to prove Kvachkov's guilt.
People present at the trial greeted the verdict by shouting: "hurrah!" and "thank you!" A group of Kvachkov's supporters, who staged a rally outside the court, also welcomed the ruling.
Lawyer Andrei Shugayev, who defended Chubais' interests in court, said the verdict was "predictable" and he would not appeal it once again.
"We were 99% sure of a not guilty verdict, and will not appeal it," he said, adding that the verdict was a result of dislike that most of Russians experience toward Chubais, an architect of economic reforms in the 1990s that impoverished millions and handed vast fortunes to a handful of well-connected oligarchs.
Kvachkov, in his turn, thanked the jury for their "courage and principle."
The assassination attempt took place near Moscow on March 17, 2005. A bomb exploded as Chubais' car was passing, and shots from automatic weapons were fired at his vehicle. Chubais was not hurt in the attack.
Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, a former General Staff member, two former paratroopers Alexander Naidenov and Robert Yashin and Ivan Mironov, the son of former Russian Press and Information Minister Ivan Mironov, were arrested in connection with the attack.
According to prosecutors, the defendants were motivated by their extremist views and a violent dislike of Chubais.
The same court found Kvachkov, Naidenov and Yashin not guilty on June 16, 2008, based on the jury's not guilty verdict of June 5. The court's ruling, however, was overthrown by Russia's Supreme Court about two months later.
MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti)
