Russian pro-war novelist and politician Zakhar Prilepin was injured and his driver killed in a car bombing as he was returning from Ukraine’s occupied territories, according to media reports.
(Bloomberg) — Russian pro-war novelist and politician Zakhar Prilepin was injured and his driver killed in a car bombing as he was returning from Ukraine’s occupied territories, according to media reports.
The attack, which took place about 460 kilometers (285 miles) east of Moscow in the Nizhny Novgorod region, followed two high-profile bombing deaths of Russian war supporters in recent months.
Russia’s investigative committee said it has opened a terrorism probe. It later said that a suspect has been detained who claimed he was working on the orders of Ukraine.
Prilepin, 47, a vocal supporter of Russia’s year-long invasion of Ukraine, was hospitalized with leg injuries after the explosion, the Tass news agency reported. Doctors decided to perform surgery in Nizhny Novgorod without transporting Prilepin to Moscow, as had been considered, according to an Interfax report.
The driver was identified by Prilepin’s press office as Alexander Shubin, an employee of a battalion of Russia’s National Guard, Tass reported.
Prilepin, who’s co-chairman of the Just Russia – For Truth party and has been sanctioned by the European Union in connection with the war, was traveling back from occupied Ukraine, where he served in one of Russia’s battalions, according to a Kommersant report.
The bomb detonated around 11 a.m. local time while the car was in the village of Pionerskoye, west of Nizhny Novgorod. Images released by the Russian Investigative Committee showed a severely damaged white Audi Q7 SUV lying upside down.
A few hours later a suspect was detained. The man, identified as Alexander Permyakov, testified during an interrogation that he acted on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services, the committee said in a separate statement later on Saturday. Permyakov planted an explosive device on the road along the route of Prilepin’s car and set it off remotely, according to the statement.
Ukraine’s State Security Service, or SBU, told Interfax it “can neither confirm nor deny the SBU’s link to this or that bang that sometimes happen with invaders and their minions.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed Ukraine, the US and Britain for the attack in a Telegram post, without offering evidence. Sergey Mironov, leader of the Just Russia – For Truth party, called the bombing a “planned and organized terrorist attack” by Ukraine targeting supporters of the war, according to Tass. He also provided no evidence connecting Kyiv to the incident.
The attack on Prilepin follows the bombing deaths of pro-war blogger Maxim Fomin, or Vladlen Tatarsky, in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April, and Darya Dugina, daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, in August. Dugina was also killed by a car bomb.
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Investigators continue to interrogate Permyakov on the circumstances of the crime, according to the statement. The experts took swabs from the suspect’s hands and clothes for forensic examinations, while other persons involved in the attack are being identified, the statement added.
(Updates with Ukrainian security service statement in ninth paragraph.)
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