As of: February 25, 2024, 5:21 a.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Russian Mi-8: The Russian defector Maxim Kuzminov managed to escape with such a helicopter in 2023 (archive photos) © IMAGO / ABACAPRESS / SNA
Maxim Kuzminov defected to Ukraine in a spectacular escape last year.
Now the Russian helicopter pilot has been murdered.
Apparently it was easy for Moscow to find him.
Cala Alta - Russian defector Maxim Kuzminov pulled off a high-profile coup that fit poorly into the narrative of Kremlin propaganda: The 28-year-old fled to Ukraine last year in a modern Mi-8 helicopter because he did not support Putin's war wanted.
Now the helicopter pilot has been murdered in Spain.
The Russian secret service reacted with ridicule; the deserter may have made a crucial mistake.
Russian defector from Ukraine war murdered in Spain – Russian foreign secret service scoffs
After the escape, Ukraine richly rewarded the Russian defector for the captured helicopter: Kuzminov received half a million US dollars (around 463,000 euros), as well as security guarantees for himself and his family.
Now he is apparently dead. Spanish regional media initially reported that on February 13th in the coastal town of Villajoyosa on the Costa Blanca near Alicante, a man was shot dead by unknown people in a garage.
Initially, the local police assumed it was a gang crime, but then the true identity of the dead man was discovered.
Maxim Kuzminov had probably lived under a false identity.
Ukraine has already verified Kuzminov's death.
“We can confirm this fact,” said military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov.
According to the police report, six bullets hit the defector.
No hypothesis has been ruled out, said a police spokesman at the request of the German Press Agency.
A comment from the Russian secret service, meanwhile, is telling: “This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse the moment he planned his dirty and terrible crime,” said the head of the Russian foreign intelligence service SWR, Sergei Naryshkin, loudly last week state news agency Tass.
Defector Maxim Kuzminov managed a spectacular escape, but then he probably made crucial mistakes
The Russian secret service would not have had such an easy time in Ukraine as it did in Spain, commented Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine.
Kiev suggested the pilot stay in the country.
“He would definitely have been safe here.” According to original reports, the defector initially planned to join the Ukrainian air force after his escape.
According to Ukrainian intelligence sources, Kuzminov may have given himself away.
Apparently he had invited a former girlfriend from Russia to his place, it was said.
In addition, the 28-year-old moved to a residential complex in Cala Alta in the Spanish holiday resort, where many Russians and Ukrainians also live.
This was reported by the Spanish newspaper
El Pais
, citing investigators.
Moscow often uses Russian compatriots abroad as a source of information.
According to the report, the attackers appeared to be familiar with the former helicopter pilot's daily routines, indicating that they had observed their victim for a long time before the attack.
Murder order from Moscow?
“Probably” ordered by the FSB and approved by Putin
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Spanish investigators said that the murder order probably came from Moscow.
According to El Pais
, it is only unclear
whether “the operation was the work of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), [...] the Federal Security Service (FSB) [...] or the Military Intelligence Service (GRU).”
However, according to the report, evidence of this is not available and is difficult to find.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former secret agent, is known for his tough stance against people he considers traitors.
These “usually come to a bad end;
“either drunk or addicted to drugs behind some garden fence,” the Kremlin chief once said.
Putin's critics die regularly, most recently the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, the former head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin and numerous oligarchs.