The apparent untimely death of a Russian pilot whose dramatic defection was touted by Ukraine highlights the security risks for those vocally resisting Moscow’s aggression against its neighbour.
Maxim Kuzminov flew a Russian Mi-8 helicopter entered Ukrainian territory last year And then he went into exile. Six months after the surgery was made public, Ukrainian authorities announced that he had died in Spain.
On February 13, a man’s bullet-riddled body was found inside a garage in southeastern Spain. Police believe Kuzminov was the victim, but formal identification has not yet been made.
The head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service said in Moscow’s first comments on the incident since news of the killing emerged that the deceased pilot had betrayed the motherland.
“This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse the moment he planned his dirty and horrible crime,” Sergei Naryshkin said, according to TASS news agency.
Western leaders say Russia frequently assassinates people it considers traitors abroad. The Russian government says Western countries have provided no evidence to support such claims.
Foreigners fear further retaliation
Yulia Taran, vice president of the Free Russians in Spain, said her group had been supporting other Russian exiles for the past two years, and that they often assumed false identities “to avoid being found out.” He said it was. [Russian President Vladimir] I’m an agent of President Putin. ”
Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya has laid the blame for her husband’s death squarely at the feet of Vladimir Putin, vowing to continue Putin’s fight “for a free Russia” and telling supporters. I called on him to join me.
“I think [defectors] “The public is very worried right now, so let’s hope that the Spanish police and intelligence services do their job well to prevent further persecution,” she said.
Ukraiska Pravda newspaper quoted Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, as saying that Kiev’s president advised Kuzminov to remain in Ukraine, where he was “supposed to be protected.” said.
Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine last year was presented as a major coup for the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kuzminov, who attended a press conference in Kiev, said he could not understand why his “beloved motherland” would go to war with Ukraine.
Other air crew members also died during his defection. Moscow said Kuzminov killed them. He said the soldiers may have fled in a panic and later died. The New York Times reported on Kuzminov’s death, saying: mentioned the events that spread in Ukraine A fellow aircrew member was shot and killed by Ukrainian warplanes after Kuzminov tried to reverse course, the paper said.
Death after coup attempt
Around the time Ukraine first revealed the helicopter and defection episode in August 2023, another wartime story was in the news.
Evgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group paramilitary group, was killed in a plane crash just two months after his Wagner fighters led a short-lived rebellion across the Russian border.
Prigozhin was critical of how the Russian government is handling the war effort in Ukraine. Moscow has denied any involvement in Prigozhin’s death.
TV journalist sentenced in absentia
The Russian government has punished some of the most vocal domestic critics of the invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.
In March 2022, Russian journalist Marina Ovsyanikova held up a handmade placard protesting the war against the backdrop of a Channel 1 broadcast. She was fined. However, she protested again a few months later and was charged with spreading false information about the Russian military.
Ovsyanikova has since fled the country, and in October last year a Russian court sentenced her in absentia to eight-and-a-half years in prison. Shortly after, Ovsyannikova fell ill in Paris. feared She had been poisoned, she later said. Blood tests didn’t prove it..
A few weeks into the war, another Russian journalist, Dmitry Muratov, was pelted with paint while riding a train from Moscow to Samara. Initial reports about the attack suggested that Muratov was targeted over his newspaper’s coverage of the war.
In September 2022, Russian authorities revoked Muratov’s newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s reporting license; Muratov declared a foreign agent.
death due to violence
Under Putin, prominent Kremlin critics have repeatedly died under unclear circumstances, including inside Russia.
Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a bridge near the Kremlin nine years ago this month. The opposition politician was a harsh critic of President Putin, and his funeral was attended by thousands of supporters.
In 2006, Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot to death in the elevator of the Moscow building where she lived. Her coverage criticized President Putin and his government’s Chechnya campaign.
The most recent example is Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison last week. Muratov called Navalny’s death a “murder” and told Reuters he believed prison conditions led to the opposition leader’s death.
