The automotive of a distinguished pro-Kremlin novelist exploded in Russia on Saturday, injuring him and killing his driver, Russia’s state information company Tass reported, citing emergency and legislation enforcement officers.
The incident involving the automotive of Zakhar Prilepin, a widely known nationalist author and an ardent supporter of what the Kremlin calls a “particular navy operation” in Ukraine, befell within the area of Nizhny Novgorod, about 250 miles east of Moscow.
It’s the third explosion involving distinguished pro-Kremlin figures because the begin of the conflict in Ukraine.
In August 2022, a automotive bombing on the outskirts of Moscow killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of an influential Russian political theorist sometimes called “Putin’s mind.” The authorities alleged that Ukraine was behind the blast.
Final month, an explosion in a restaurant in St. Petersburg killed a well-liked navy blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky. Officers as soon as once more blamed Ukrainian intelligence businesses for orchestrating it.
Governor of the Niznhy Novgorod area Gleb Nikitin stated Prilepin suffered minor bone fractures and was receiving medical assist.
Russian information outlet RBC reported, citing unnamed sources, that Prilepin was touring again to Moscow on Saturday from Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk areas and stopped within the Nizhny Novogorod area for a meal.
Police are investigating the incident, and a legal probe has been launched on the cost of terrorist act. Inside Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk stated a suspect has been detained.
Prilepin turned a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014, after Putin illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula. He was concerned within the battle in japanese Ukraine on the facet of Russia-backed separatists. Final yr, he was sanctioned by the European Union for his help of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In 2020, he based a political celebration, For the Fact, which Russian media reported was backed by the Kremlin. A yr later, Prilepin’s celebration merged with the nationalist A Simply Russia celebration that has seats within the parliament.
A co-chair of the newly fashioned celebration, Prilepin gained a seat within the State Duma, Russia’s decrease home of parliament, within the 2021 election, however gave it up.
Chief of the celebration Sergei Mironov known as the incident on Saturday “a terrorist act” and blamed Ukraine for it. Russian International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova echoed Mironov’s sentiment in a submit on the messaging app Telegram, including that the accountability additionally lies with the U.S. and NATO.
“Washington and NATO have nursed yet one more worldwide terrorist cell — the Kyiv regime,” Zakharova wrote. “Direct accountability of the U.S. and Britain. We’re praying for Zakhar.”
The deputy chair of Russia’s Safety Council, former President Dmitry Medvedev put the blame on “Nazi extremists” in a telegram he despatched to Prilepin.
Ukrainian officers haven’t commented immediately on the allegations. Nonetheless, Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, in a tweet on Saturday appeared to level the finger on the Kremlin, saying that “to delay the agony of Putin’s clan and preserve the illusionary ‘whole management,’ the Russian repression machine picks up the tempo and catches up with everybody,” together with supporters of the Ukraine conflict.