A top anti-corruption Russian police officer has been shot down and killed after leaving her home in Moscow.

Colonel Yevhenia Shishkina had previously been threatened by criminal gangs and reported that her car had been torched in an arson attack earlier this year.

A gunman approached Colonel Shiskina as she left her apartment in Arkhangelskoye, on the outskirts of Moscow, and shot her in the neck.

Anti corruption officer Colonel Yevhenia Shishkina was shot dead leaving her apartment in Arkhangelskoye on the outskirts of Moscow.

The investigation into Colonel Shiskina's murder is being led by Aleksandr Bastykin, head of Russia's Investigative Committee and a close aide of President Vladimir Putin

According to Radio Free Europe, chief of Russia's Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin has taken personal charge of the investigation.

Bastriykin is a close aide of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Investigators are probing whether one of the criminal gangs she had been probing may have ordered her assassination.