Ilia Bogdanov, who worked for the FSB until 2014, is suspected of participating in the “terrorist attack” in the Bryansk region, being included in the list of wanted persons drawn up by Russian security officials, The Moscow Times writes.
The village of Novyi Ropsk in the Bryansk region, about 1 km from the border with UkrainePhoto: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP / Profimedia
According to RIA Novosti, the Interior Ministry database indicates that he is wanted “under an article of the Criminal Code,” without specifying a specific article.
He is also in the Rosfinmonitoring register, on the list of “extremists and terrorists”.
Ilia Bogdanov is a former FSB officer who in 2014 illegally crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border and became a member of the Right Sector, a battalion of the Ukrainian volunteer corps, an organization considered extremist by Russia.
In 2015, he obtained Ukrainian citizenship and opened a business in Kyiv. After the invasion began, Bogdanov returned to the front to fight alongside the Ukrainians.
The media reported that Bogdanov was identified in a video from the Bryansk region, which was made by members of the Russian Volunteer Corps, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
The FSB later announced that it had taken “measures to eliminate infiltrations from the state border”. However, residents of the area said they had not seen any special forces and had not been able to find anyone.
Russia denounces ‘another terrorist attack’
Russian authorities claimed on Thursday that two villages in the Bryansk region, which is close to the border with Ukraine, were attacked by “Ukrainian saboteurs”.
The FSB released the first video footage from the Bryansk region, a day after the “attack by Ukrainian saboteurs” claimed by the Russian authorities. Independent media note that the images are edited.
According to official sources quoted by TASS, two civilians were killed and an 11-year-old boy was injured.
The Russian media also circulated information about an alleged hostage-taking and an exchange of fire on a school bus, but these were then retracted even by Russian officials and rejected by the Ukrainian authorities, who noted that in the area of several distance learning is practiced on Mondays.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of terrorism after reports of fighting taking place in the Bryansk region (southwestern Russia), which borders Ukraine. It was “another terrorist attack and another crime”, said the Russian president during a video conference, notes Agerpres.
He said that “Ukrainian saboteurs penetrated the border territories and opened fire on civilians. They saw that it was a civilian vehicle, in which civilians were traveling, and they opened fire.”
Putin was briefed by the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB) about the events in Briansk.
Who claims the attack
A group called the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), which describes itself as a Russian volunteer formation that is part of the Ukrainian armed forces, claimed responsibility in a video posted online for Thursday’s attack in the Russian region of Briansk, on the border with Ukraine.
“The corps of Russian volunteers entered the territory of the Russian Federation on March 2 to show their countrymen that there is hope, that the free Russian people with arms in hand can fight against the regime” of President Vladimir Putin, the group said on its Telegram account, according to the Ukrainska Pravda publication and the Unian press agency.
The group says it does not fire on civilians and unarmed people, after Russian law enforcement reported fighting with a group of Ukrainian saboteurs in Briansk on Thursday.
“Now is the time for ordinary citizens of Russia to understand that they are not slaves,” the group said in a Telegram message, urging Russians to rise up and fight against Putin’s regime.
RDK is a Russian volunteer unit formed in August 2022 that fights in the armed forces of Ukraine.
What Kiev says
The events in the Bryansk region represent an internal confrontation between Russian citizens, claimed Andrii Yusov, spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate under the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, in a comment for the local Suspilne television station.
“The Russian Federation is an absolutely unstable entity, with a colossal number of internal conflicts: international, social, political. And indeed, there are such things that speak of confrontations within the Russian Federation itself, between the citizens of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian official said, adding that the statement of the Russian Volunteer Corps shows that the Russian people are probably starting to wake up against the bloody dictatorship of to Putin.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian presidency denounced as a “deliberate provocation” by Moscow the information disseminated by the Russian authorities regarding the infiltration of some Ukrainian “saboteurs” in the Russian border region, according to AFP and Agerpres.
“The story of the Ukrainian sabotage group in Russia is a classic deliberate provocation. Russia wants to frighten its population to justify” its invasion of Ukraine, Mihailo Podoliak, adviser to the presidency, posted on Twitter.
He suggested that the incident reported by Russian security services and the local governor in the border region of Briansk could be linked to the action of Russian “partisans”, who operate using guerrilla methods.
“The partisan movement in Russia is strengthening and becoming more aggressive. Fear your partisans…”, Podoliak also stated.
Investigation in Russia
The Kremlin announced on Friday that the “terrorist attack” will be the subject of an investigation and measures will be taken to prevent such attacks from happening again in the future, Reuters, AFP and TASS inform.
“Of course there will be an investigation into yesterday’s (Thursday) terrorist attack, measures will be taken to prevent such events from happening again,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by TASS. “Conclusions will be drawn following the investigation,” Peskov emphasized.
Peskov also recalled that in the Bryansk region “a special border zone regime is in force”, but that “additional measures are being taken”.
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