Russian nationalist writer injured: the suspect would have acted on orders from kyiv

2023-05-06 18:53:16

Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, supporter of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, was injured in the “explosion” of his car in Russia on Saturday. Another person was killed, authorities said, amid a wave of attacks affecting the country.

“According to preliminary information, one person was killed by the explosion and the writer Zakhar Prilepin, who was in the car, was injured,” said the press service of the Ministry of the Interior, adding that the he incident took place in the Nizhny Novgorod region (central-west). According to the Investigation Committee, Zakhar Prilepin was in his car “with his family” when the explosion occurred. “It was decided not to transfer him to Moscow and to operate on him in Nizhny Novgorod. His condition is considered serious, ”according to the medical emergency services, quoted by the Interfax agency.

A suspect had been arrested. “Investigators from the Investigative Committee are examining the involvement of Alexander Permyakov in the assassination attempt against Zakhar Prilepin,” the committee said, adding that “during the interrogation, he stated that he acted on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services”.

“Washington, with NATO, has fed a new cell of international terrorism: the Kiev regime,” reacted the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova. “Direct responsibility of the United States and Great Britain. We pray for Zakhar,” she added.

Committed to patriotic and traditionalist movements

A figure on the Russian literary scene, translated in many countries, the 47-year-old writer committed himself in 2014 to the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, alongside whom he fought.

Since then, this veteran of the Chechen wars in the 1990s has regularly traveled to eastern Ukraine and defended President Vladimir Putin and his massive offensive against Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022. Very present in the Russian media , he also actively participates in patriotic and traditionalist movements in Russia.

In recent weeks, several attacks and bombings have hit Russia, sometimes very far from Ukraine. At the beginning of April, an influential military blogger, Vladlen Tatarskii (real name Maxim Fomin), fierce supporter of the attack in Ukraine, was killed in the explosion of a statuette trapped in a cafe in the center of Saint Petersburg. In the summer of 2022, at the end of August, Daria Douguina, an ardent defender of the offensive in Ukraine and daughter of the ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dougin, died in a car explosion in the Moscow region.