Russia Arrests Accomplices in Murder of Chemical and Biological Defence Chief
Russian security forces. X/ @sputnik_brasil
January 16, 2025 Hour: 9:35 am
They rented a room in a hostel in the Moscow region to facilitate the assassin’s escape.
On Thursday, Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, confirmed that authorities detained two more accomplices in the murder of Gen. Igor Kirillov, who was the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense at the time of his death in December.
RELATED:
Explosive Device Kills Head of Russian Biological Defense Forces
The detainees, Batukhan Tochiev and Ramazan Padiev, rented a room in a hostel in the Moscow region in November to facilitate the assassin’s escape, Petrenko stated.
The two accomplices, one of whom personally handed over the keys to the hideout to the perpetrator, acted under the orders of an individual whose identity is still being investigated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Tochiev and Padiev have been charged with committing a terrorist act as part of an organized group under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code.
The Uzbek national Akhmadzhon Kurbonov, who carried out the assassination, was arrested at the hostel where he had been hiding. He later confessed to having been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
The detainee traveled to Moscow, received a high-powered explosive device, and concealed it in an electric scooter, which he parked near the entrance to the building where Kirillov lived.
The FSB reported that once the assassin saw the military officials—Kirillov and his assistant—leaving the building, he remotely detonated the bomb. Ukrainian intelligence services had promised the detainee US$100,000 and the opportunity to relocate to a European Union country.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
