Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Politics

Suspect in car bomb attack on Russian nationalist writer charged with terrorism

A view shows a damaged white Audi Q7 car lying overturned on a track next to a wood, after Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin was allegedly wounded in a bomb attack in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, May 6, 2023. REUTERS/Anastasia Makarycheva

Russian investigators on Monday charged a man suspected of carrying out a car bombing that wounded a prominent Russian nationalist writer with terrorist offences.

The writer, Zakhar Prilepin, an ardent supporter of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, broke both legs in Saturday's attack. His close associate, who was in the car with him, was killed.

Alexander Permyakov was charged with committing a "terrorist act" and illegal handling of explosives, the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement. A court in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region remanded him in custody for two months.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine and the Western states backing it, particularly the United States, for the attack on Prilepin.

Ukraine's security services neither confirmed nor denied involvement. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he believed Russian authorities had staged the attack.

The U.S. State Department has not commented on the incident.

Russia's state news agency TASS quoted security sources as saying the suspect was a "native of Ukraine" with a past conviction for robbery with violence.

Prilepin was the third prominent pro-war figure to be targeted by a bomb since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia also blamed Ukraine for the deaths of journalist Darya Dugina and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in the two previous attacks. Kyiv has denied involvement.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.