The car of Russian writer and co-chairman of the political party "A Just Russia — For Truth," Zakhar Prilepin, was blown up on a highway in the Nizhny Novgorod region on Saturday, as a result of which the driver was killed and Prilepin was injured, a law enforcement source told Sputnik.
"The explosion occurred on the highway in the Borsky district. The staff of the emergency service, police and the investigative committee are on their way to the site," the source said.
Meanwhile, Prilepin's press service told Sputnik that the politician was "fine" and that the circumstances of the accident were being established.
"What exactly happened at the moment has not been established. Zakhar Prilepin is fine," the press service said.
Later, a law enforcement source told Sputnik that Zakhar Prilepin had suffered fractures and a concussion as a result of the explosion.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has confirmed the car explosion in the Nizhny Novgorod region, adding that one was person killed, the writer Prilepin was injured, and that tentatively there are no other victims.
"According to preliminary data, as a result of the explosion one person was killed, and the writer Zakhar Prilepin who was in the car was wounded. Preliminarily, there are no other victims. The police are establishing all the circumstances of the incident," the report says.
The ministry also added that the police hot on the trail detained a man in the Nizhny Novgorod region, who may be involved in the blast.
The explosion of the car occurred "in a fairly remote place," about 80 kilometers from Bor, Nizhny Novgorod, near the river Kerzhenets, a source in the emergency services of the region told Sputnik.
Commenting on the incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that "the US and NATO have forged yet another terrorist cell - the Kiev regime."
She added that all that has happened is the "direct responsibility of the US and the UK."
Sergey Mironov, "A Just Russia — For Truth" party leader, stated that the bombing of Prilepin's car was a planned and organized terrorist attack, but that Prilepin is alive, while the details of his condition are being clarified.
"The main thing that is known is that Zakhar is alive. The details of his condition are being clarified, and law enforcement authorities are working at the site. But it is already obvious that this planned and organized terrorist attack is another brazen challenge from the unpunished [Ukrainian nazi] junta," Mironov told reporters.
Investigators and criminologists have arrived at the scene of the incident involving the car in the Nizhny Novgorod region which Zakhar Prilepin was in, the press service of Russia’s Investigative Committee told reporters.
The governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin, commenting on Zakhar Prilepin's condition after the explosion, said that "Zakhar is fine," and that law enforcement officials are investigating the circumstances and causes of the incident.
"Regarding the situation with Zakhar Prilepin. Now the law enforcers are figuring out the circumstances and causes of what happened. Zakhar is fine," Nikitin wrote on his Telegram channel.
This is not the first case of such an attack on a prominent Russian journalist. On April 2, Russian war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in a bomb blast at a St. Petersburg cafe in which some 30 other people were wounded. The next day, the suspect, Darya Trepova from St. Petersburg, was detained. According to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, the murder was planned by the Ukrainian special services
Earlier, on August 20, 2022, Russian journalist Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian politician Alexander Dugin, was killed when a car bomb ripped through the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving. The Russian Federal Security Service stated that the Ukrainian special services were behind the murder, and that the perpetrator was Ukrainian citizen Natalia Vovk.
Zakhar Prilepin is known for his patriotic stance and support for the Russian military as well as the special military operation in Ukraine. In January, Prilepin went to the conflict zone to protect Donbass as part of Russia’s Rosgvardia.