Zakhar Prilepin: Russian pro-war blogger injured in car bomb

A prominent Russian writer and pro-war blogger has been wounded by a car bomb, officials say.

Zakhar Prilepin, an vehement supporter of the Ukraine war, was reportedly conscious after the attack in the Nizhny Novgorod region but his driver was killed.

A suspect was detained, the interior ministry said.

It comes a month after another pro-Kremlin blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, died in a bombing at a St Petersburg café.

Less that two hours after Saturday’s attack was reported, the interior ministry said a suspect with previous convictions had been detained near a forest in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

“The search for possible accomplices continues,” the statement said.

Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said: “Law enforcement officers are now investigating the circumstances and causes of the incident. Zakhar is OK.”

The explosion reportedly took place on a remote road some 80km (50 miles) from the town of Bor. State media said the blogger suffered a concussion and fractured bones.

The partisan group Atesh, which is made up of Ukrainians and Crimean Tartars, claimed it was behind the attack.

“We had a feeling that sooner or later he would be blown up,” they wrote on Telegram. “He was not driving alone, but with a surprise on the underside of the car.”

The BBC cannot verify Atesh’s claims.

As well as being one one of Russia’s best-known novelists, Prilepin is known for his involvement with Russian ultranationalist politics.

A veteran of Russia’s bloody wars in Chechnya in the 1990s, the 47-year-old has admitted fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Prilepin rose to literary fame in the 2000s.

He has called for the “return of Kyiv to Russia”. Last year a group founded by Prilepin called on officials to “purge the cultural space” of all who oppose the conflict.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the alleged bombing until the investigation was complete.

But Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sought to blame the attack on the UK and the US.

“The fact has come true: Washington and Nato fed another international terrorist cell – the Kiev regime,” she wrote on Telegram. “We pray for Zakhar.”

The attack is the latest to target high-profile supporters of President Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Vladlen Tatarsky was killed last month. The blogger had reported from the Ukraine front line and gained notoriety last year after posting a video filmed inside the Kremlin in which he said: “We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone as necessary. Just as we like it.”

Activist Darya Trepova, 26, was later arrested and was charged with terrorism following the publication of a video – believed to have been recorded under duress – in which she admitted bringing a statuette to the café that later blew up.

And in August 2022, Darya Dugina – the daughter of a close ally of Mr Putin – was killed in a suspected car bombing near Moscow.

It is thought her father, the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who is known as “Putin’s brain”, may have been the intended target of that attack.