The key facts

  • On the morning of November 13, a Toyota Fortuner exploded in the courtyard of a residential building on Kirovogradskaya Street in Chertanovo
  • According to Telegram channels, Sergei Zavorotny was behind the wheel; he was hospitalized in serious condition, with reports of the loss of one arm
  • The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case; the article was not specified, and no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion

Car explosion in Chertanovo

On the morning of November 13, a Toyota car exploded in Moscow's Chertanovo district. According to the Telegram channel Baza, the explosion occurred in the courtyard of a residential building on Kirovogradskaya Street, near the Yuzhnaya metro station. Witnesses who approached the scene after the explosion saw an elderly man lying on the asphalt next to the car.

Who was behind the wheel and what is known about the victim's condition

The Telegram channel Mash specified that it was a Toyota Fortuner SUV linked to Sergei Zavorotny, whom the channel calls an 'international journalist' who worked 'in government positions' in Ukraine. According to the channels Shot and Mash, an explosive device was planted under the lower part of the car on the driver's side and detonated when the car started moving along the street; Zavorotny himself was behind the wheel. He survived but was taken to hospital in serious condition; it is reported that he lost one arm.

Reaction of investigators and Azarov

The Investigative Committee announced the opening of a criminal case over the car explosion on Kirovogradskaya Street and the dispatch of an investigative team to the scene; the statement did not name the driver and did not specify under which article the case was opened. According to RIA, citing law enforcement agencies, according to preliminary information, Sergei Zavorotny — a journalist and former adviser to ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine Nikolai Azarov — was injured in the incident. Azarov himself, in a comment to the TASS agency, said that so far he knows nothing except that the car exploded somewhere in the Chertanovo area: 'He is alive and most likely in hospital,' adding that he himself is fine. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion so far.

Who is Sergei Zavorotny

Zavorotny worked at Komsomolskaya Pravda, headed the press service of the Rodina faction in the State Duma in 2003–2004, and in 2010–2014, during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, was press secretary of Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov. Later, together with journalist Alexei Berdnikov, he wrote the book 'Yanukovych Gave Up. The State Department Took Over. How Russia Lost Ukraine. Notes of Nikolai Azarov's Adviser,' presented in 2018 at the Biblio-Globus bookstore in Moscow; according to the annotation on LiveLib, it is 'the most detailed and impartial investigation' of the coup in Kyiv in February 2014. Azarov himself, after the events of 2014 that led to Yanukovych's removal, lives in Russia.