As the May 9 Victory Day approaches, tension and fear prevail in Russia. After the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, the country led by President Vladimir Putin is experiencing another phase that has shaken the foundations of the Russian security apparatus. And it doesn’t take much: a bomb planted in the car of a nationalist base that swallows the Kremlin’s propaganda. This time the target of the attackers is Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who was injured in the explosion of his car while the driver was killed. The author’s condition is serious and is currently being considered for his transfer by plane to Moscow.
An Audi Q7 car with Zakhar Prilepin was blown up in Nizhny Novgorod. Prilepin was seriously injured and was taken to the nearest hospital. Local media reported that the deceased Prilepin driver was a Ukrainian citizen. The explosion of Prilepin’s car was so violent that… pic.twitter.com/1DKteAhAvk
—Victor victop55 (@vicktop55) May 6, 2023
What happened
According to the reconstruction of the Russian Rbc website, Prilepin was in an Audi Q7 and was returning to Moscow from the territory of the “People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk” when he stopped for lunch in the Nizhny Novgorod region. As the author drove away, the attackers would have followed his car and planted a bomb under the hood. Emergency services, quoted by Interfax, said police were looking for two suspects. The Russian authorities, which launched a terrorist investigation into the assassination attempt on the nationalist writer, have already pursued one of the alleged assassins. A person was detained in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, on suspicion of taking part in the assassination attempt on blogger and war correspondent Prilepin.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Telegram that the Kremlin holds the US and Britain responsible for the attack. “Truth has come true, Washington and NATO have fueled another international terror cell: the Kiev regime,” he added, and invited people to “pray for Zakhar.” A few hours after the nationalist writer was wounded, the Crimean partisan movement Ates group, which brought together Ukrainians, Tatars and Russians, claimed responsibility. Novaya Gazeta writes by quoting a post on Telegram by the same group, which was born in September last year.
Who is Prilepin?
A strong supporter of the Ukrainian invasion, Prilepin, born in Nizi Novgorod in 1974, had fought in Chechnya for the ranks of the Russian police counter-terrorism unit, Omon. The press office announced that he had joined the National Guard precisely because of his background in Omon, adding that Prilepin had conducted “humanitarian missions” in the occupied territories. In the past, he was an adviser to the separatist republic of Donetsk. The nationalist writer had joined the National Guard in January and was in the field in Ukraine “to carry out combat missions”.
The attack was reported by Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatasky on April 2 in St. It took place just a month after he was murdered in a cafe in St. Petersburg. In August, Daria Dugina, the daughter of the nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, who was considered the real target of the attack, died outside Moscow when her car exploded.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
