Russia blames US, Ukraine, for attack on pro-Kremlin novelist

Head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner asks Moscow to let Chechen fighters relieve his forces at flashpoint Bakmut.

The remains of Zakhar Prilepin’s vehicle on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Russia has blamed the US for an attack on a pro-Kremlin writer that killed his assistant and left him wounded.

The head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner meanwhile on Saturday asked Moscow to let Chechen fighters relieve his forces at the flashpoint city of Bakmut in eastern Ukraine.

Investigators said Ukraine was behind the blast that wrecked the car in which Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s best-known novelists, was travelling. It took place about 11am on Saturday (8pm AEST) in Prilepin’s region of Nizhny Novgorod, 400km east of Moscow.

The investigative committee published images of a wrecked overturned car and said the writer had been taken to a medical centre, naming a suspect it had ­detained as Alexander Permyakov. Mr Permyakov said he had acted “on the instructions from the Ukrainian special services”, said Russia’s investigative committee.

But Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak suggested the attack was due to Russian in-fighting, referring to the biblical figure Moloch, a pagan deity who “devours his enemies … and finally devours his own”.

Later, Russia’s foreign ministry said: “The responsibility for this terrorist act, and for others, does not lie only with Ukraine, but also with its Western minders, primarily the United States.”

Regional Governor Gleb Nikitin said he had visited Prilepin in hospital and “the operation was successful”.

Zakhar Prilepin in 2017 launches his book Platoon. Officers and rebels of Russian Literature in Moscow. Picture: AFP

Prilepin is a vocal supporter of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, where he fought alongside pro-Russian separatists in 2014. His novels draw on his experiences of serving with Russian forces in Chechnya and as a member of a banned radical nationalist group.

The shaven-headed writer has been a frequent visitor to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict in April 2014.

There have been two previous killings of nationalists, both of which Russia blamed on Ukraine.

In April, a blast from a statuette rigged with explosives killed 40-year-old pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. And last August Darya Dugina, the daughter of a ultranationalist intellectual, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in Bakhmut to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s forces.

“I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 concerning the transfer of the ­positions of the Wagner paramilitary units in Bakhmut and its periphery, to the units of the Akhmat battalion,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The Akhmat battalion refers to combat units under the command of Mr Kadyrov, who has ruled Russia’s Muslim-majority republic Chechnya for the last decade-and-a-half.

Wagner fighters have led the battle for Bakhmut, spearheading the grinding, months-long Russian assault on the city, and ­almost capturing it in what has been the longest and bloodiest battle of the Russian campaign in Ukraine.

But rivalries between Mr Prigozhin and the army, which have long been strained, reached boiling point last week.

In a series of scathing videos on Friday, Mr Prigozhin blamed General Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for “tens of thousands” of killed and wounded Russian fighters in Ukraine. Mr Prigozhin said his fighters would be forced to pull out because of a lack of ammunition, blaming the defence ministry.

Mr Kadyrov said on Telegram that his forces were “ready to move” towards Bakhmut. “The soldiers are on alert, we are just waiting for orders,” he said.

As Russia prepares to celebrate the popular May 9 celebrations of the Soviet victory over the Nazis, Moscow has blamed Kyiv – – and its Western supporters – for a series of attacks and sabotage operations.

In the most spectacular incident, Russian authorities claimed Thursday to have thwarted a drone attack on the Kremlin, blaming Washington for having masterminded the attack.

It said the attack, by two drones, had been aimed at killing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both Kyiv and Washington have denied any involvement.

AFP