Car carrying Russian propaganda writer Prilepin blows up in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

This information was confirmed by TASS news agency, citing emergency services.

The propagandist's driver was killed, and a collaborator from Ukraine, Oleksandr Shubin, who is listed in the Myrotvorets database, was wounded. Prilepin was taken to intensive care in serious condition.

It was previously reported that one of Zakhar Prilepin's legs was torn off by an explosion, and doctors were fighting to save the other. The operation began in Nizhny Novgorod, and doctors did not allow him to be transported to Moscow by helicopter. His condition is serious, and doctors say that his fate will be decided the next day. Prilepin was put into an artificial coma after the operation.

The Russian Guard is guarding Prilepin's chamber. The attempt on his life occurred in the forest near the village of Pionerskoe near Nizhny Novgorod, where his family resides.

Forensic experts initially claimed that the explosives were planted under the hood, but later, there was a version that two remote-controlled anti-tank mines were on the way to Prilepin's regular route. The explosion was so powerful that it flipped Prilepin's white Audi onto its roof, leaving a hole with a diameter of one and a half meters.

Prilepin's daughter was allegedly in the car during the explosion, but she was not injured. The Russian security forces claim that the writer's car was being watched, and the attackers were waiting for him to drop off his daughter.

After the explosion, roadblocks were set up in the surrounding areas, and a man named Oleksandr Permyakov from Ukraine was detained during the "interception" operation. He confessed to working for the "Ukrainian special services" on whose behalf he carried out the assassination attempt on Prilepin. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee, Permyakov had recently been issued a passport of a Russian citizen. Permyakov was captured while combing the forest near the explosion.

Baza, a TG-channel, reported that the FSB also detained another suspect named Serhiy A., an alleged accomplice of Permyakov. He rented an apartment in the regional center a day before the explosion and appeared suspicious to the owner of the apartment due to a large number of tattoos.

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Zakhar Prilepin, 48, is a member of the Central Council of the Russian political party "Just Russia - Patriots - For Truth," which formed after the merger of Sergei Mironov's "Just Russia" party and Prilepin's "For Truth" project. He began his political career with Eduard Limonov, working in the anti-Putin camp, even signing the manifesto of opposition leaders "Putin must go!" in 2010. However, his stance towards the Russian dictator changed with the armed invasion of Ukraine in 2014, leading him to join the conflict and hold the position of deputy commander of the special forces battalion for work with personnel of the terrorist organization DPR between 2016-2018. He claims that his unit was responsible for killing a large number of Ukrainian defenders. Prilepin also acted as an adviser to the DPR leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko.

Currently, Prilepin espouses pro-Putin views and is supported by Yuriy Kovalchuk, a "gray cardinal" of Putin's regime. Prilepin's interviews and propaganda works reflect his beliefs. He sees himself as the future president of the Russian Federation.

• On August 20, 2022, a car carrying Daria Dugina, the daughter of the head of the International Eurasian Movement, a leading ideologue of rascism, Alexander Dugin, exploded and burned on the outskirts of Moscow (Russia). Daria Dugina was also engaged in military propaganda.

• On April 2, 2023, an explosion occurred on Universitetskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg at a "recital" of a propagandist, former resident of Makiivka and former citizen of Ukraine, Vladlen Tatarsky. The explosive was in a statuette given to Tatarsky by a visitor to the "recital".