A source informed that Russia arrested the citizen of Uzbekistan alleging he was behind the explosion with the bomb that killed Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov-the renowned officer. His recruitment is said to be reportedly from Ukraine’s security agency; in return, this young man, 29-year-old, was to get $100,000 plus residence in the EU.
On Tuesday the attack happened in the southeast Moscow as a bomb hidden in an electric scooter exploded, killing Kirillov and his assistant. Kirillov was the head of Russia’s military chemical, biological, and radiological weapons unit and Ukraine accused him of using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, something Russia denies.
Russian authorities said that he was sent from Ukraine intelligence services to Moscow. Video by the Baza news website showed the man narrating details of his actions, describing how he bought the electric scooter, planted the bomb, and then detonated it remotely when Kirillov left the building.
The suspect said that his mission was coordinated by operatives based in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service took responsibility for the assassination, calling the act a retaliation for Kirillov’s alleged war crimes. The Kremlin, in response, condemned Ukraine’s “nazi regime” and reiterated the legitimacy of Russia’s actions in the ongoing conflict.
Russia’s FSB intelligence service, which has taken intense criticism for its lapses during the war, now works to identify additional culprits involved in the assassination plot. Another part of the investigation goes towards the growing anti-migrant sentiments in Russia, given by the Uzbek citizenship of the suspect and recent terrorist attacks from radicalized Central Asians.
Further tensions have been created by an incendiary editorial in the UK’s Times newspaper, which described Kirillov’s murder as a “legitimate act of defense.” Russian officials, including Dmitry Medvedev, threatened retribution against the journalists of the publication that ran the editorial, prompting sharp responses from British authorities.
