The incident happened in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, according to the Russian Investigative Committee investigating serious crimes. The dead man is therefore the driver of the car. The investigative committee published a photo showing a white car lying on its roof in front of a crater in a forest area and spoke of a “terrorist act”.
The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the condition of the 47-year-old was “critical”. It had been decided not to transport him to Moscow, but to operate directly in Nizhny Novgorod. Governor Gleb Nikitin later stated that he had visited Prilepin in the hospital and that the operation had been “successful”. Russian news agencies had previously reported that Prilepin had been injured in the legs.
The Home Office said it had arrested a suspect born in 1993 and showed video of a handcuffed man wearing a black hoodie.
The investigative committee said it was “investigating the involvement of Alexander Permyakov in the attempted assassination of Zakhar Prilepin.” During interrogation, he said he acted on instructions from the Ukrainian secret service.
“Responsibility for this and other terrorist attacks lies not only with the Ukrainian authorities, but also with their Western sponsors, especially the United States,” the Russian foreign ministry said. Washington’s lack of a conviction was “significant”.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the US, NATO and Ukraine of being responsible. “Washington and NATO have fed another international terrorist cell – the Kiev regime,” she explained to the online service Telegram shortly after the explosion.
Prilepin has campaigned for the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014, alongside whom he fought. Since then he has traveled regularly to eastern Ukraine. He defends President Vladimir Putin and his offensive against Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The author and Chechen veteran was a member of a banned group of radical nationalists.
Prilepin has been under EU sanctions since the end of February 2022. Last year he joined a group with the aim of tracking down cultural workers in Russia with “anti-Russian positions”.
In August, blogger Darja Dugina, daughter of Kremlin-related ideologue Alexander Dugin, died in a similar explosion near Moscow. In April, influential military blogger Maxim Fomin died in a bomb attack in a St. Petersburg cafe. In both cases, the Russian authorities blamed Ukraine.
