Police in Siberia arrest two suspected accomplices in General Igor Kirillov’s Moscow assassination
Police in Siberia arrested two men from Ingushetia this week on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who oversaw Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces until he was killed in a bombing last month in Moscow. The two suspects reportedly used their identification papers to rent the apartment used by Kirillov’s accused bomber, Uzbek national Akhmad Kurbanov.
According to police, the two Ingush men are affiliated with the outlawed militant wing of a religious movement founded under Batal Hajji Belkhoroev. The newspaper Kommersant notes that two of the suspects arrested for aiding the terrorists who attacked a concert hall outside Moscow in March 2024 are also from Ingushetia and also allegedly have ties to the same illegal religious movement.
On December 17, 2024, Igor Kirillov and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed when a bomb exploded near the entrance of the general’s home. Within hours, police apprehended a suspect they later identified as Akhmad Kurbanov. He is currently jailed and facing charges of terrorism and illegal arms trafficking. Kurbanov reportedly told interrogators that a Ukrainian intelligence agency recruited him with the promise of a $100,000 reward and relocation to somewhere in Europe.
