A former aide to Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov was hospitalized in serious condition Friday after an explosion beneath his SUV in southern Moscow, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
Sergei Zavorotny, a 72-year-old journalist, was driving on Kirovogradskaya Ulitsa in the Chertanovo district when the blast occurred. Passersby gave him first aid before he was taken to the hospital, Kommersant said.
Kommersant reported that investigators were treating the blast as attempted murder and suspected possible involvement by Ukrainian intelligence services.
The Moscow blast came a day after a car bomb killed a Russian serviceman in St. Petersburg. The local broadcaster 78.ru reported that the victim was a colonel in the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Another Russian military officer was killed in a car explosion in the same St. Petersburg neighborhood in August.
Born in the Far East city of Khabarovsk, Zavorotny spent much of his career in Ukraine and worked for Azarov during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency.
He reportedly moved to Russia after the 2014 Maidan Revolution that toppled Yanukovych and went on to voice pro-Kremlin and anti-Western views.
In 2018, Zavorotny presented a book he co-wrote about Yanukovych’s downfall at the Biblio-Globus bookstore in Moscow. The book’s title portrayed the events of 2014 as a surrender to the U.S. State Department.
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