MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. The perpetrators behind the terrorist attack targeting Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, are known to Moscow, and the fight against their Nazi regime will persist, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
"Naturally, we know who masterminded this terrorist attack, and we are combating these conspirators, their Nazi regime, and will continue to do so," the Kremlin official asserted.
Peskov refrained from responding to a question regarding potential involvement of third countries in Kirillov’s assassination. "The investigation is ongoing, and [specialists] are working very efficiently," he remarked.
Putin’s press secretary emphasized that, "although not much time has passed, significant progress has been made in uncovering details." He expressed confidence that the full circumstances of this terrorist attack would be revealed.
When asked whether enhanced security measures for senior officials in the Russian Defense Ministry are being implemented, Peskov simply commented that a "terror attack is a terror attack."
According to investigators, on the morning of December 17, an explosive device concealed on a scooter near a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue in southeastern Moscow was detonated. Kirillov and his aide lost their lives in the explosion. The Russian Investigative Committee has filed criminal charges for murder, terrorist activity, and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Public Relations Center reported the detention of the attack’s perpetrator: an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence, who was promised a payment of $100,000 and relocation to an EU country.