Prosecutor Milana Degaeva, during a hearing in the case of Vasily Strizhakov — accused of an attempt on the life of TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov — said that the group members agreed to “take a large amount of drugs” and commit suicide if they were detained by security forces. A Mediazona correspondent reported this from the courtroom.
Strizhakov is the oldest of those detained in the case of the attempt on Solovyov’s life and the first whose case began to be considered. The prosecution insists that the man has a mental disorder and asks the court to send him for compulsory treatment.
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According to the prosecutor, the group, on instructions from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, bought grenades, signal pistols, sawn-off shotguns, cartridges and a homemade high-explosive explosive device from the fall of 2021 to the spring of 2022. Of all the possible methods of murder, they chose to blow up the TV presenter's car.
One of the accused, Maxim Druzhinin, during interrogation named the mastermind behind the murder of Solovyov as a certain Artem Deriglazov, who “is serving a life sentence [in prison] somewhere near Kiev.” After the successful bombing of TV presenter Deriglazov’s car, they allegedly promised to release him and give all members of the group Ukrainian passports.
Druzhinin also claims that Strizhakov “knows how to prepare some kind of drugs,” which the accused were supposed to take if detained by security forces.
At the end of April last year, the Investigative Committee reported on the arrest of six members of the National Socialism/White Power group, who, according to the investigation, wanted to blow up Solovyov’s car.
The arrested ultra-rightists are charged with illegal sale of weapons, illegal production of weapons by an organized group, illegal acquisition of explosives, illegal production of explosive devices, as well as preparation for murderand participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. The investigation considers 30-year-old Andrei Pronsky to be the leader of the cell; he was charged under 11 criminal articles.
Strazhakov, whose case the court essentially began to consider, in the 2000s was registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a “skinhead”, and in 2004 he was convicted of selling marijuana — the court sent him for compulsory treatment. In 2010, he was again sent for compulsory treatment due to attempted murder: Strizhakov attacked a girl at the entrance with a knife.