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The attack happened as Ostapets walked his dog in the grounds of his home in the elite village of Krekshino, 25km southwest of Moscow. Ostapets was beaten with baseball bats by two men wearing ski masks, according to an unidentified police source quoted by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.

"The men stood beating the businessman with baseball bats and fled when they heard his wife screaming," the source added. Ostapets’ wife was unharmed in the attack.

It was not known whether the attack was connected with Ostapets’ role as President of the Juice Producers Union, which he had led since 1999.

Union members include the Big Four of Russian juice: Lebedyansky, which has just been bought by PepsiCo and the Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) for a record $1.4 billion; Multon, owned by bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company; Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD), which has often been named as a potential takeover target; and Nidan Soki, recently acquired by the British private equity firm Lion Capital.

The Russian juice market is growing rapidly, and is expected to become the biggest in Europe in the near future. In February, Ostapets told the Interfax news agency that 2007 juice sales increased almost 13% to 3.1 billion litres. Sales of regular juice and nectar were 9.8% up, while sales of juice for babies and children up to 3 years leaped 28%.

Russian criminal groups have allegedly targeted the juice industry in the past.