Moscow: Russian authorities have detained an Uzbek citizen in connection with the deaths of a senior military official and his assistant, the Russian Investigative Committee said on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old suspect, accused of carrying out a terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian armed forces’ radiological, chemical and biological defence troops, and his assistant, has been detained.
According to the committee, the suspect was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services and given a homemade explosive device after he arrived in Moscow. He allegedly placed the device on an electric scooter parked near the entrance of the building where Kirillov resided.
The suspect is said to have rented a car to monitor the general’s residence, installing a camera that transmitted live footage to the attack’s organisers in Dnipro, Ukraine. Once the two officials left the building, the suspect remotely detonated the explosive device.
In exchange for carrying out the attack, the detainee was promised a reward of 100,000 US dollars and relocation to a European country, the committee said, Xinhua news agency reported.
Kirillov and his assistant were killed on Tuesday when the explosive device, concealed on the scooter, detonated outside the residential building.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that combat officer Kirillov always stayed true and devoted to his duty and oath.
“He was also an outstanding professional and an incredibly well-educated and knowledgeable person who knew everything there was to know about the work he was doing for the military. Reliability, integrity and responsibility were also among his traits. For many years, he regularly, on a system-wide basis, exposed the Anglo-Saxons and NATO for their criminal activities with facts in hand. He focused on a domain which these forces were eager to manipulate on the international stage. It covered chemical weapons and biological safety,” Zakharova told media in Moscow.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson asserted that Moscow understands perfectly well the objective of this latest act of terror and is aware of its deep-running goals and causes.
“Russia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York will not fail to focus on this act of terror during the December 20 Security Council meeting. Russia requested this meeting for discussing Western arms supplies to Ukraine. We are certain that those who organised and perpetrated Igor Kirillov’s assassination will be found and punished, no matter who and where they are,” she mentioned.
–IANS