Pro-Russian paramilitary leader killed in Moscow bomb blast
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Traffic police officers patrolling near the site of a blast in a residential building in Moscow, Russia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - A pro-Russian paramilitary leader from eastern Ukraine was killed on Feb 3 when a bomb tore through parts of a luxury apartment block in Moscow, reported state news agency Tass and other Russian media.
Tass called the bombing a well-planned assassination.
The bomb detonated just as Mr Armen Sarkisyan, accompanied by his bodyguards, entered the basement of the “Scarlet Sails” complex on the banks of the Moskva River, just 12km from the Kremlin, according to Russian media.
One bodyguard was killed and three others injured, Kommersant newspaper said.
“The assassination attempt on Sarkisyan was carefully planned and was ordered. Investigators are currently identifying those who ordered the crime,” Tass quoted a law enforcement official as saying.
Baza, a Telegram channel with contacts in Russia’s security services, published video footage that showed major damage to the building’s lobby. Reuters journalists on the scene saw shattered windows and a helicopter apparently evacuating the injured, amid a major police presence.
In December, Ukraine’s SBU security service described Mr Sarkisyan as a crime boss in the Donetsk region, much of which has been controlled by Moscow since 2014, and said that he was officially suspected of participating in and aiding “illegal armed groups”.
It said he had formed a pro-Russian military unit made up of local convict fighters and had organised purchases of supplies for front-line units.
Mediazona, an independent Russian outlet that covers law enforcement, reported that the Armenian-born Mr Sarkisyan had been a long-time organised crime figure in the Donetsk region city of Horlivka.
In 2022, it said he founded a pro-Russian paramilitary unit composed mostly of his fellow ethnic Armenians to fight against Kyiv’s forces.
In December, Ukraine took credit for the killing of Russian general Igor Kirillov
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the Feb 3 blast. REUTERS
