A car bombing in Moscow on Friday critically injured Sergei Zavorotnyi, a former adviser to Ukraine’s former prime minister Mykola Azarov, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee. The committee said an explosive device detonated in the vehicle Zavorotnyi was driving, and he was hospitalised with serious injuries. The attack came one day after a similar bombing in St Petersburg killed a military serviceman, and Moscow has blamed Kyiv for the attacks; the Kyiv regime has not commented.
Key Takeaways: The Moscow blast on Friday targeted Sergei Zavorotnyi, 72, who was critically injured and hospitalised. A day earlier, a military serviceman was killed by a car bomb in St Petersburg. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened criminal cases, but no suspects have been publicly identified.
Zavorotnyi, 72, had worked as a journalist for Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda before becoming an adviser to Azarov. Azarov served as prime minister under Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced from office by protesters and fled to Russia in February 2014. Zavorotnyi wrote a book about Yanukovych’s ouster and ran an online outlet critical of the Kyiv regime. The bombings are the latest in a series of attacks and shootings targeting people involved in the fighting in Ukraine, a pattern that has raised security concerns and deepened tensions around the conflict.
Azarov told Russian state television that he was “shocked” by the attack on his former adviser and said he believed Zavorotnyi was targeted because of his criticism of the Kyiv regime. Russia’s REN TV channel reported that Zavorotnyi lost his left arm, suffered multiple other injuries and was in a coma after the explosion. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal inquiry but did not identify possible suspects pending the investigation.
Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said an explosive device was reportedly planted under the man’s car and detonated remotely as he was driving on Friday. She said preliminary reports indicated that Thursday’s victim in St Petersburg was a military serviceman, while the Fontanka news outlet described him as a colonel and other Russian online media called him a senior air force officer. In both cases, according to Shapovalova, the device was triggered remotely and planted under the car; she added that in Russia all such attacks are considered to be orchestrated by the Ukrainian side.
The investigation into both bombings is continuing, with Russia’s Investigative Committee seeking to establish the circumstances and possible organisers. The Kyiv regime has not commented on either attack. Observers say the incidents could prompt tighter security measures and further escalation in mutual accusations between Moscow and Kyiv, while upcoming official statements and investigative findings are expected to clarify the situation.
Source: www.aljazeera.com