A Toyota Fortuner SUV exploded in Moscow’s Chertanovo district on the morning of November 13, in an incident linked by local Telegram channels to Sergey Zavorotniy, a former press secretary to Mykola Azarov, who served as Ukraine’s prime minister in 2010–2014. According to preliminary reports, Zavorotniy was behind the wheel; he survived but was taken to hospital in serious condition, with claims that he lost an arm. Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that a criminal case had been opened over the explosion on Kirovogradskaya Street, but did not name the driver or disclose the charges.
Key Takeaways: The explosion occurred on November 13 in Moscow’s Chertanovo district and involved a Toyota Fortuner reportedly belonging to Sergey Zavorotniy. Telegram channels say an explosive device was placed under the driver’s side and detonated as the vehicle began moving. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case, while key official details remain undisclosed.
Zavorotniy is a figure known in Russian and Ukrainian media-political circles. He worked for the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and in 2003–2004 headed the press service of the Rodina party faction in Russia’s State Duma. Later, from 2010 to 2014, during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency, he served as press secretary to Mykola Azarov, then Ukraine’s prime minister. Those biographical details add a sensitive political-media dimension to the case and help explain the attention it has attracted in both Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels.
The Baza Telegram channel reported that the blast took place in a residential courtyard on Kirovogradskaya Street, not far from the Yuzhnaya metro station. Witnesses were said to have found an elderly man lying on the asphalt near the vehicle. Mash and Shot claimed that the device had been attached under the driver’s side of the SUV and was triggered when the car started moving along the street. These accounts have not been fully confirmed by the official investigation and should be treated cautiously.
Zavorotniy later co-authored a book with journalist Aleksey Berdnikov titled “Yanukovych sdal. Gosdep prinyal. Kak Rossiya poteryala Ukrainu. Zapiski sovetnika Nikolaya Azarova” (“Yanukovych surrendered. The State Department accepted. How Russia lost Ukraine. Notes of Nikolay Azarov’s adviser”). The book was presented in 2018 at Moscow’s Biblio-Globus bookstore; a LiveLib annotation described it as a detailed account of the February 2014 upheaval in Kyiv. The investigation now needs to establish the cause of the blast, the type of device used, possible perpetrators and whether there was a political motive. Until official conclusions are released, the Telegram accounts’ reports remain preliminary.
Source: kun.uz