In less than twenty-four hours, the Russian special services presented to the press a man who allegedly committed – and confessed to – the attack against General Igor Kirillov, Tuesday, December 17 in the early morning. The Russian general and his adjutant died instantly, in the explosion of a booby-trapped scooter parked at the foot of the building where the high-ranking officer lived.
In a video transmitted to the country’s official media by the FSB, the Russian internal security service, we see this man explaining in broken Russian that he allegedly committed this act at the request of the Ukrainian special services in exchange for “100,000 dollars and a European passport”. According to the FSB, this man is an Uzbek born in 1995, and would have come from his country on purpose to commit the attack. The official agency Ria Novosti claims to have identified him thanks to social networks as a certain Akhmad Kourbanov.
According to the economic daily Kommersant, it would not have been necessary “only a few hours” to the sleuths of the FSB and the Investigative Committee, the special section of the Russian prosecutor’s office responsible for terrorism cases, to identify this individual thanks to the rental of the self-service car from which he filmed the explosion which cost the lives of General Kirillov and his adjutant.
According to Russian investigators, the progress of the attack was broadcast live to its sponsors, who were in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The suspect said he received the explosive device in the mail and attached it to the scooter according to the instructions of the Ukrainian services.
“The punishment they deserve”
Today, Russian investigators are focusing on identifying and arresting his accomplices, continues Kommersant. In a press release sent to the press, the FSB added that the “employees of the Ukrainian security services involved in organizing the terrorist attack will be found and will receive the punishment they deserve”, specifies the Ria Novosti agency.
The tabloid close to the Kremlin Moscow Komsomolets also claims that the authorities of Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country that formerly belonged to the Soviet Union, have “immediately transmitted all the information in their possession” regarding the suspect. Another tabloid close to power, Komsomolskaya Pravda, publishes – like all official media – the brief video of the “confessions” of the suspect adding that, “obviously, no one was really planning to pay him and get him out of the country”.
Asked Wednesday morning about this unprecedented attack since the start of the war in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov welcomed the“efficiency” Russian security services. Quoted by the daily Knowledgehe also affirmed that the authorities no longer had any doubt as to the identity of the sponsors of this act. “We clearly understand who our enemy is and what he is capable of. This once again proves the correctness of our actions during the special military operation,” he continued in a reference to the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for almost three years.
