An explosive device was attached to the vehicle of the 47-year-old author and war supporter, Russian media reported. Its driver was killed in the detonation, there are different statements about the severity of Prilepin’s injuries.
According to TASS news agency, well-known nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin was injured in a car bomb attack in Russia. Prilepin was in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the state news agency reported on Saturday, citing rescue services. Prilepin’s driver was killed, and the writer himself was wounded.
Prilepin’s press service initially announced that the author’s condition was “fine”. However, rescue workers described him as seriously injured. The 47-year-old was traveling in his car in the Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow, on Saturday when an explosive device attached to the vehicle detonated, several Russian state news agencies reported, citing local authorities.
Governor Gleb Nikitin wrote in Telegram that investigators have already arrived at the explosion site near the city of Bor. Initially, it was unclear who was behind the alleged attack.
Putin supporter, however, even at war
Prilepin, known in Germany for his book “Sankya”, published in translation in 2012, is considered a strong supporter of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by President Vladimir Putin more than a year ago. In the meantime, the nationalist author himself fought there.
Prilepin held various positions before becoming a member of the OMON police unit. He participated in operations in Chechnya in 1996 and 1999. During that time he joined the National Bolsheviks, which have been banned as an unconstitutional organization since 2005.
Prilepin now lives with his wife, two sons and two daughters in Donetsk, in Ukraine’s partly Russian-occupied Donbass region. It has been on an EU sanctions list since February 2022.
Russia accuses US of supporting terrorism
The Russian government has accused the US and the West in general of supporting Ukrainian terrorism. Moscow Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted to the attack on Prilepi. “The fact came true: Washington and NATO fed another international terrorist cell – the Kiev regime,” said Zakharova. The US and Britain bear “direct responsibility” for the attack, says Zakharova, but she gives no proof of this.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a supporter of the war in Russia has been the target of an assassination: just a few weeks ago, prominent military blogger Vladlen Tatarski died in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg. Last August, Darja Dugina – daughter of right-wing nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin – died near Moscow as a result of a car bomb detonation.
(APA/Portal/TASS/dpa)