Moscow ? Anatoly Chubais, the powerful head of Russia’s state-controlled electricity monopoly and architect of its much-maligned 1990s privatization push, survived a roadside bombing and ambush Thursday when an armored limousine carrying him to work was raked by gunfire after an explosion.

A retired Russian army colonel and explosives specialist was detained hours later after investigators traced a Saab car that may have been used as the getaway vehicle, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency, which cited unidentified law enforcement officials.

Chubais was one of the most controversial figures in Russia’s post-Soviet history, and the attack raised questions about whether the motive was rooted in politics or an ambitious plan to divvy up the world’s largest power grid, creating a new constellation of winners and losers.

Chubais, 49, head of Unified Energy Systems, was being driven to work from his country house in an elite area west of Moscow when a bomb containing 2.2 pounds of TNT exploded near his BMW limousine, tearing a 15-foot-wide crater in the pavement, investigators said.

Two attackers wearing combat fatigues then sprayed the car with automatic weapons fire as Chubais’ driver sped off. After briefly exchanging fire with security guards, who had been following in another vehicle, the attackers fled into a nearby forest, police spokesman Alexander Alexeyev said.

Nobody was hurt. Russian television showed video of the BMW, its hood riddled with bullet holes.

A visibly shaken Chubais said at UES headquarters he had been expecting an attack.

“Speaking honestly … there were recently grounds to suggest that something like this could happen,” said Chubais, who had revealed in a recent interview that he had survived three previous assassination attempts. He said he understood “quite clearly who may have organized today’s assassination attempt,” but he would not give any names.

He also said he would not be daunted by the attack.

“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,” he said.