Zakhar Prilepin, writer and co-chairman of A Just Russia – For Truth, remains in the hospital after an assassination attempt. Doctors call his condition stable, but predict that recovery may take at least six months. The writer does not yet make plans for this time, but his team continues to work on several projects at once. A public trial of already detained criminals, a thorough analysis of the actions of the Ukrainian side and the capture of Kiev by military means, Zakhar Prilepin is sure, will help stop a series of terrorist attacks against Russian media people expressing a patriotic position. He told Izvestia about this in his first interview after the assassination attempt.
“The team continues to work”
– Attempted terrorist attack, the purpose of which was you – not the first. The last case occurred with Vladlen Tatarsky, one cannot help but recall Daria Dugin and many other murders. What needs to be done to prevent this from happening again?
– Take Kyiv by military means. Identify plans for future terrorist attacks and analyze the mechanism of those that have taken place. Hold a public trial of the people who committed the terrorist attacks that killed Motorola (Arsen Pavlov), Alexander Zakharchenko, Givi (Mikhail Tolstykh), Vladlen Tatarsky (Maxim Osipov), Dasha Dugina.
– You mentioned that even before the assassination attempt on Zakharchenko, you were the target of Ukrainian services, several assassination attempts were made. How much have the methods of the Ukrainian side changed? Is there any reason to believe that you, like Dugin and Tatarsky, and other media people, were helped to “lead” and develop plans by Western intelligence services?
– Ukraine could cope alone. But in this case, the “partners” inherited, and this is hardly able to surprise anyone.
Doctors say that the treatment process will take at least six months. How do you plan to recover and what would you like to do, given that you need peace? Will you be more actively involved in literary activities?
I don’t plan anything. I watch with interest the possibilities of man.
– Will you continue to implement projects to patriotize culture? Earlier, you announced the opening of the Tradition cultural center and a number of other initiatives.
– Part of my team continues to work on this: in Nizhny Novgorod, Chita, Dagestan – everywhere their plans, their friends. The other part of the team leads humanitarian projects. The third – the “Oplot” battalion – returns to the NVO zone.
– You yourself do not intend to end your political career because of what happened? And what are the plans for the headquarters of Zakhar Prilepin?
– Headquarters – almost always the initiative on the ground. They grow like mushrooms on their own. To engage in any type of activity – from anti-corruption to humanitarian, activists need to answer the question: “Who will you be?” My career is people who carry all these projects. In itself, their occurrence is inexplicable. But they are. This is more than any career.
“I didn’t act alone”
An attempt on the life of the writer and co-chairman of A Just Russia – For Truth, Zakhar Prilepin, was committed on May 6 in the Nizhny Novgorod region. His car Audi Q7 was blown up, at the time of the explosion he was driving in a car. Prilepin’s colleague Alexander Shubin, with whom he was traveling, died. Luckily, the writer’s daughter managed to get out of the car shortly before the attack.
Zakhar Prilepin was diagnosed with a mine-explosive wound, contusion of both lungs, numerous fractures and bruises. On the day of the terrorist attack, he underwent the first stage of the operation, during which devices for external fixation of fractures were installed. Later, on May 12, the second operation was performed to fix the bone fragments for their strong fixation until complete fusion.
“The condition of Zakhar Prilepin is stable, on the recommendation of doctors, he remains in the intensive care unit. Sensitivity and movement in the toes are preserved,” his press office reported on May 14.
On May 19, the writer successfully underwent a third operation – to fix a broken vertebra in the lumbar region. The doctors decided to perform this operation in order to accelerate the consolidation of this fracture and speedy recovery.
At the moment his condition is stable.
“Everything is under control, the doctors are coping,” Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin said today on the sidelines of the Russian-Chinese business forum in Shanghai.
On the day of the terrorist attack, they managed to detain the alleged organizer of the crime, Alexander Permyakov. He said that he acted on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services – planted an explosive device on the road and later detonated it remotely.
On May 8, the Semenovsky District Court in the Nizhny Novgorod Region chose Permyakova as a measure of restraint in the form of detention. The suspect will remain under arrest for two months.
According to the chairman of the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, the accused of attempting to assassinate the writer had accomplices. “He did not act alone. This is a performer. We are now establishing accomplices, ”he said at a session of the department within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.
Alexander Bastrykin also noted that “it was a special operation with powerful technical and organizational preparation.”
Now Zakhar Prilepin, despite injuries, maintains his fortitude. Recently, he said that after undergoing rehabilitation, he was going to return to the zone of the special operation of the Russian Federation. Addressing the organizers of the assassination attempt on him, the writer said that Russia would inevitably win the conflict in Ukraine.
It is worth noting that in January 2022, Zakhar Prilepin signed a contract with the Russian Guard to serve in the NVO zone and is currently an active officer of the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation.