Former Ukrainian PM's Aide Seriously Injured in Moscow Car Blast

An explosion beneath an SUV in southern Moscow on Friday left Sergei Zavorotny, a 72-year-old journalist and former aide to Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, in serious condition in hospital, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported. The incident follows other recent car bombings in Russia.

What happened

The blast occurred while Zavorotny was driving along Kirovogradskaya Ulitsa in the capital's Chertanovo district. Passersby gave him first aid before he was taken to hospital. According to Kommersant, investigators are treating the incident as attempted murder and suspect possible involvement by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Related incidents

A day earlier, a car bomb in St. Petersburg killed a Russian serviceman. The local broadcaster 78.ru reported that the victim was a colonel in the Russian Aerospace Forces. In August, another Russian military officer was killed in a car explosion in the same St. Petersburg neighborhood.

Who Zavorotny is

Zavorotny was born in Khabarovsk, a city in Russia's Far East, but spent much of his career in Ukraine. He worked for Azarov while Viktor Yanukovych was Ukraine's president. He reportedly moved to Russia after the 2014 Maidan Revolution, which toppled Yanukovych, and has since voiced 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.