Foreign Affairs

Attack in Russia

The video in which Permyakov confesses to the attack in Prilepin, released by the Russian Investigative Committee

The writer and pro-Putin fighter is wounded but is conscious and stable in hospital

07/05/2023

The "Russian Investigative Committee (ICR)" has released videos in the media showing the arrest and confession of the alleged bomber to Zakhar Prilepin, the writer and pro-Putin fighter whose car exploded on Saturday, May 6 near the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. The novelist saved himself and is now stable in hospital, while the driver is dead. The arrested man is called Alexander Permyakov, but many express doubts about the real dynamics of the facts.

Alexander Permyakov, whom the ICR described as "a man recruited by the SBU" is accused of blowing up Prilepin's car. But Ukrainian sources point out that he fought on the side of the DPR, the pro-independence Donetsk People's Republic, like Prilepin himself, against the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported to Cheka-OGPU by her sister Alexandra Irina.

In the past, Permyakov had already been accused of committing a terrorist attack, then he served a sentence in Ukraine for robbery. Subsequently, he worked as a worker in his native Druzhkovka, and in 2014-2015 he was a militiaman and fought on the side of the DPR. In May 2015, Permyakov crossed the border into the Russian Federation on foot. The pro-Russian "terrorist" has been in contact with his loved ones (his sister and mother live in St. Petersburg) until recently. The last time he wrote to his relatives from Nizhny Novgorod, he said that he worked on a construction site and was interested in the health of Irina's mother. After that, apparently, something happened to Alexander who did not contact anyone for 8 days, so the ICR published a video of his interrogation, where at different junctions (rough editing) the accused confesses all crimes in sentences that seem purely protocol.