Authorities detained an Uzbek citizen in the probe connected to deaths of senior military officer Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, along with his assistant, the Russian Investigative Committee said Wednesday.
A 29-year-old suspect, who according to the investigators, executed a terrorist attack that claimed the lives of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov-the commander in charge of radiological, chemical and biological defense troops for the armed forces-and his assistant has been detained.
According to the committee, the suspect was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services and was given a homemade explosive device upon arrival in Moscow. He allegedly put the device on an electric scooter parked near the entrance of the building where Kirillov resided.
The suspect is said to have rented a car to monitor the general's residence, installing a camera that transmitted live footage to the attack's organisers in Dnipro, Ukraine. Then, after the two officials had left the building, the suspect detonated the explosive device from a distance.
The committee said that in exchange for carrying out the attack, the detainee was promised a reward of 100,000 US dollars and relocation to a European country, news agency reported.
Kirillov and his assistant were killed on Tuesday when the explosive device, concealed on the scooter, detonated outside the residential building.
According to the statement from Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Kirillov always stayed true and devoted to his duty and oath as a combat officer.
"He was also an excellent professional and a really very well-educated and well-informed individual who knew everything about the job he did for the military. He was also very responsible, with such virtues like reliability and integrity. He has been, for a long time, systematically on a system-wide level revealing facts of Anglo-Saxon's and NATO criminal activities. He also specialized in the sphere to which these forces wanted so desperately to impose their scenario at the international level. This included chemical weapons and biological security," Zakharova said during media in Moscow.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated that Moscow understands perfectly well the objective of this latest act of terror and is aware of its deep-running goals and causes.
"Russia's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York will not fail to focus on this act of terror during the December 20 Security Council meeting. Russia requested this meeting for discussing Western arms supplies to Ukraine. We are certain that those who organized and perpetrated Igor Kirillov's assassination will be found and punished, no matter who and where they are," she mentioned.
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