After a vehicle bomb attack, a well-known Russian author and pro-war blogger underwent surgery and is currently being sedated, according to officials.
In a car that was blown up in a village in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region was Zakhar Prilepin, a fervent backer of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. His driver died, and he sustained fractures.
According to investigators, Alexander Permyakov, a suspect who has acknowledged working for Ukraine, is being questioned.
By Kyiv, that has not been confirmed.
Neither has Kyiv refuted its complicity nor addressed claims made by the Russian foreign ministry that Ukraine, with the support of the US administration, singled out Prilepin as an ideological foe.
Prilepin’s injuries were not made explicit in Russian sources. Permyakov is charged with setting off a remote-controlled bomb that destroyed Prilepin’s Audi, according to the Investigative Committee (SK), which handles serious crimes including terrorism.
According to the SK, the suspect was apprehended in a nearby village. Greater than 425 kilometres (265 miles) east of Moscow is the area.
According to the SK, the suspect “admitted doing an assignment for the Ukrainian secret services.”
It happens a month after Vladlen Tatarsky, another pro-Kremlin blogger, lost his life in a bombing at a café in St. Petersburg.
According to reports, the explosion on Saturday happened on a lonely road around 80 km outside of Bor.
The attack on Prilepin was allegedly carried out by the rebel organisation Atesh, which is made up of Crimean Tartars and Ukrainians.
They posted on Telegram, “We had a feeling that sooner or later he will be blown up. He had a surprise on the car’s bottom and wasn’t travelling alone.
The BBC is unable to confirm Atesh’s statements.
Prilepin is noted for his engagement in Russian ultra-nationalist politics in addition to being one of the most well-known novels in Russia.
The 47-year-old, who served in Russia’s brutal Chechnya battles in the 1990s, has acknowledged fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“Return of Kyiv to Russia” is what he has demanded. A Prilepin-founded organisation urged authorities to “purge the cultural space” of everyone who opposed the conflict last year.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, refrained from commenting on the purported bombing until the inquiry was finished.
However, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, attempted to pin the attack on the US and the UK.
She claimed on Telegram that “the fact has come to pass: Washington and Nato fed another global terrorist cell, the Kiev regime.” “We offer prayers for Zakhar.”
The incident is the most recent to target prominent proponents of President Vladimir Putin’s conflict in Ukraine.
Last month, Vladlen Tatarsky passed away. The blogger was well-known last year after posting a video shot inside the Kremlin in which he declared: “We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, and we will rob everyone as necessary.” The blogger had been covering the front lines in Ukraine. Just how we prefer it.
Following the release of a video that was allegedly taped under duress and in which activist Darya Trepova, 26, admitted carrying a figurine to the café that later exploded, she was later detained and charged with terrorism.
And in August 2022, a suspected vehicle bombing near Moscow claimed the life of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a close confidant of Vladimir Putin.
It is speculated that the attack may have been intended at her father, the renowned “Putin’s brain” and ultra-nationalist intellectual Alexander Dugin of Russia.
