by Mick the Ram

Russia has announced that it has detained a man from Uzbekistan over the killing of a senior general and his assistant in Moscow.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s radiological, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed along with his assistant Ilya Polikarpov, on 17 December.

They died after being on the receiving end of a remotely detonated bomb containing the equivalent of 300 grams of high explosive, planted in an electric scooter outside his apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt in south-eastern Moscow.

The 29-year-old Uzbek national was, according to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out the hit and had been promised a monetary reward and residence in an unspecified European country, in return.

The suspect is understood to have rented a vehicle and fitted it with a surveillance camera to monitor Kirillov’s residence and his movements.

The assassination of Kirillov – who was 54 and was the most senior military official known to be killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – occurred just 7 kilometres (4 miles) from the Kremlin.

Unconfirmed name

The detention of the Uzbek national over the killing of the General, marks a significant development in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The suspect, who the Russian state media have identified as Akhmad Kurbanov, although that still has to be confirmed, faces a grim future as he navigates the Russian judicial system, and is unlikely to receive any assistance from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

They are the operators who have been confirmed as being the orchestrators of the attack, viewing Kirillov as a legitimate target due to his alleged war crimes.

“Justified” attack

A day before his killing, the SBU said that, on Kirillov’s orders, Russia had used more than 4,800 cases of prohibited chemical munitions since the war began.

These allegations, coupled with the timing of the assassination, suggest a calculated move by Ukrainian intelligence to eliminate a key figure in Russia’s military apparatus.

Grim outlook for detainee

Irina Volk, from Russia’s interior ministry, said in a statement that the suspect had been detained in the village of Chernoye, Balashikha, in the Moscow region, before being “transferred to investigative bodies”.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, emphasized that everyone involved in the killing would be found and punished.

Practised in disinformation

Kirillov was viewed in Russia as a tireless patriot, fighting for the truth and exposing Western “crimes”.

He had become notorious for outlandish briefings at the Russian defence ministry, which prompted the UK Foreign Office to label him as a “significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation”.

Conflict move on a stage

Among his most outrageous claims was one that the US had been building biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, suggesting that “two organisations had specific instructions to create a so-called “dirty bomb” and it was in its “final stage”.

Those claims were rejected by Western countries as “transparently false”.

The international community will be closely watching how this case unfolds, as it may set a precedent for future actions and responses in the ever-evolving conflict.