A man who fled to Turkey after allegedly placing a car bomb under a military officer’s car in Moscow on Wednesday has been arrested in absentia, the capital’s courts’ press service has reported.
Yevgeny Serebryakov has been charged with the illegal acquisition and possession of firearms, and the attempted contract killing of two or more people.
Serebryakov, who is believed to have flown to Turkey from Moscow immediately after placing an explosive device under a Toyota Land Cruiser in northern Moscow in the early hours of Wednesday morning, was detained by Turkish police in the city of Bodrum on Wednesday afternoon.
Security footage posted by Telegram channel Mash appeared to show a man in a light sweatshirt planting a bomb in the Land Cruiser at 2:28am on Wednesday morning before fleeing the scene.
The car bomb detonated four hours later when military officer Andrey Torgashov put his key in the ignition. Torgashov’s feet were blown off in the blast, and his wife reportedly suffered shrapnel wounds.
There was initially confusion about the identity of the victims, as a second military officer, also named Andrey Torgashov, and his wife, denied reports that they had been the victims of a car bomb. However, it later transpired that another military officer with the same name and his wife had indeed been severely injured in the explosion.
A source told state-owned propaganda broadcaster RT that the authorities were considering multiple explanations for the incident, including sabotage by the Ukrainian secret services, domestic conflict and a possible connection to Torgashov’s business interests.