Moscow car bombing critically injures former adviser to Ukraine’s ex-prime minister
A car bombing in Moscow on Friday critically injured Sergei Zavorotnyi, 72, a former adviser to Ukraine’s ex-prime minister Mykola Azarov, a day after a similar attack killed a military serviceman in St Petersburg. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the blast struck a car Zavorotnyi was driving; it hospitalised him with injuries and opened a criminal inquiry without naming suspects. Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said an explosive device was reportedly planted under the car and detonated remotely while he was driving.
Moscow has blamed Kyiv for a series of bombings and shootings targeting people linked to the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on either bombing. Azarov, who lives in Russia, told state-run television he was shocked and believes Zavorotnyi was targeted because of his criticism of Ukraine’s government. 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 had worked as a journalist for Komsomolskaya Pravda before advising Azarov, wrote a book about Yanukovych’s ouster, and ran an online outlet critical of Ukrainian authorities. Russia’s REN TV said he lost his left arm, suffered multiple other injuries and was in a coma.
A day earlier in St Petersburg, Russia’s Investigative Committee said a military serviceman was killed by a bomb in his vehicle; it did not identify the victim or say who was behind it. Fontanka reported the victim was a colonel; other Russian online media said he was a senior air force officer. Shapovalova said preliminary reports indicated a military serviceman rather than a colonel of the Russian Air Force, that he too was driving when the bomb went off, and that in both cases a device planted under the car was triggered remotely. In Russia, she said, the attacks are considered to have been orchestrated by the Ukrainian side.
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