Ukrainian sentenced to life for attempt to kill notorious Russian pro-war propagandist Zakhar Prilepin

A Russian court has sentenced Oleksandr Permyakov to life imprisonment for his alleged role in an attempt in May 2023 to kill notorious Russian writer and war propagandist Zakhar Prilepin. The latter has supported Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2014, even claiming to have taken part in the fighting.  More recently, he has also been involved in hunting out ‘anti-Russian elements’ among Russian cultural figures.

The attempt to blow up 49-year-old Prilepin’s car took place near Nizny Novgorod on 6 May 2023. It killed Prilepin’s bodyguard Aleksandr Shubin, and left Prilepin with, seemingly, serious injuries. Prilepin later said that he had been driving at the time of the explosion, and that the bomb had been planted under the wheel, presumably, on the passenger’s side. 

Oleksandr Permyakov ‘confessed’ immediately and, although refusing to testify in court, never retracted this confession.  Caution does, however, seem warranted, not least because of the speed with which Russia’s Investigative Committee arrested him and extracted a ‘confession’.

He was detained that same day, not far from the site of the bomb-blast.  He was allegedly found to have a fake Kazakhstani passport, as well as both Ukrainian and Russian passports in his own name, and a pistol with a silencer.  It is not clear how he was supposed to have planted the bomb.  The Investigative Committee showed him ‘confessing’ on 6 May, where he said he had been recruited by the SBU [Ukrainian Security Service] in 2018 and had travelled to Russia in 2022 in order to kill Prilepin.  At the very end of a brief ‘confession’ that he seems to be reciting, he says that he “regrets the deed”. Elsewhere, however, he is reported to have expressed regret that the explosion killed Shubin, and did not finish off Prilepin.  He said there that he had wanted to kill Prilepin “out of vengeance” for the fact that the Russian propagandist “supports the war and, with his actions, still further incites hatred”.

Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] has made no comment about the attack on Prilepin whom many would consider to be a legitimate target because of his active engagement in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. 

While it may be true that Permyakov was “recruited by the SBU” as he said while clearly bound and under the total control of Investigative Committee officers, these videoed confessions have been the Russian norm since 2014.  In very many cases, men have retracted the ‘confession’ when finally able to see a lawyer, or when later released.  In several cases, such as that of Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, the ‘confession’ to working for the SBU was later quietly discarded and did not appear in the obviously fabricated charges against him.  It is also typical of such cases that the person’s actions are presented as being for mercenary motives.  At some point in the testimony read out in court, Permyakov said that he had been offered 20 thousand dollars if he managed to return safely.  There is also a somewhat strange claim that he was forced to do two lie detector tests, with him failing the first time for failing to inform that he had, supposedly, fought earlier for the Russian proxy ‘Donetsk people’s republic’.

Permyakov has been in custody since 6 May 2023.  He was charged with committing a terrorist act under Article 205 of Russia’s criminal code and with illegal purchase, possession, etc. of explosives (Article 222.1). 

The ‘trial’, before the Western District Military Court, under judge Roman Vladimirov, began in the middle of September.  A life sentence had been demanded by prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova who claimed that this was warranted because of Permiakov’s so-called “pronounced anti-social leanings and publicly dangerous interests”

Permyakov’s lawyer Lyubov Lisitsa asked for a minimum sentence on the grounds that Permyakov had fully admitted guilt and had actively helped to ‘solve the crime’.

If, as is possible, Permyakov was offered a milder sentence if he did not contest the charges, he was deceived.  On 30 September 2024, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the first five years in a prison, the worst of Russia’s penal institutions.  After that time, he will be sent to a special (very harsh) regime prison colony.  He was also ordered to pay a 700 thousand rouble fine.