MOSCOW, February 21 Russian defector Maxim Kuzminov, who was found dead in Spain, could have enjoyed hidden state protection, the Mundo newspaper suggested.
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"The possibility looms that the helicopter pilot (Kuzminov — Ed.) <…> enjoyed some state protection in Spain. “He had a kind of hidden status of a political refugee,” the publication says.
As the publication notes, it is unknown how Kuzminov ended up in Spain and how long he could have stayed in the country.
According to the newspaper, the defector was shot five times, the attackers fled in the victim's car, which they then abandoned in the nearby town of El Campello and burned. This scenario is typical for fights in organized crime, Mundo notes.
The discovery of Kuzminov’s body in the municipality of Villajoyos became known on Monday. His death was confirmed by a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to the RBC-Ukraine publication, as well as the Spanish police to The New York Times.
The press service of the Spanish Civil Guard reported that the investigation into the murder is classified, the details will be reported to the authorities of another country.
As Ukrainian media and Telegram channels wrote last year, Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov hijacked a Mi-8 military helicopter in the summer from Kursk to Ukraine. In this case, two crew members died. The defector himself gave a press conference in September at which he stated that he contacted Ukrainian intelligence on his own initiative. Speaking about his colleagues, Kuzminov said that they were unarmed and could not offer resistance. After the hijacking, they allegedly began to behave “a little aggressively” and “ran out of the helicopter towards the border.” As the defector added, he does not have exact information about their fate, but the media reported that they were liquidated.