Sixth Spring Explosion: Pro Putin Blogger Zakhar Prilepin Severally Injured In Car Bomb Attack.....

Car bomb in Russia wounds pro-war writer, kills driver 

May 6 (Reuters) - A prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver on Saturday and investigators said a detained suspect admitted acting on behalf of Ukraine. Russian officials immediately blamed the attack on Ukraine and the West. The state Investigative Committee said the writer's Audi Q7 was blown up in a village in Nizny Novgorod region, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Moscow, which it was treating as an act of terrorism. It said Prilepin had been taken to hospital. The committee released a photograph showing the white vehicle lying overturned on a track next to a wood, with a deep crater beside it and fragments of metal strewn nearby. The committee later issued a statement saying investigators were questioning a suspect identified as Alexander Permyakov. "The suspect was detained and, in the course of questioning, he provided testimony that he acted on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services," said the statement, read by a woman in uniform. The statement said he acknowledged detonating the bomb remotely and fled but was detained. State news agency TASS quoted security sources as saying the suspect was a "native of Ukraine" with a past conviction for robbery with violence. Interfax news agency quoted a source in the emergency services as saying Prilepin's condition was serious and doctors would operate on him. The novelist is an outspoken champion of Russia's war in Ukraine and has boasted of taking part in military combat there. He was the third prominent pro-war figure to be targeted by a bomb since Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. Russia has blamed Ukraine for the deaths of journalist Darya Dugina and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in the two previous attacks, and Kyiv has denied involvement. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak posted a cryptic comment on Twitter about Saturday's incident, appearing to suggest it was the result of Russian infighting. Source