Founder of the pro -Russian paramilitary group dies in an explosion in Moscow – AOL

The founder of a pro -Russian police group in Eastern Ukraine, described by authorities in Kiev as a “criminal leader”, died after a bombing in Central Moscow, according to Russian state media.

Armen Sarkisian died on Monday at a hospital in Moscow from injuries suffered by an explosion in a residential complex in the capital, says Tas, citing medical services. Later, the Russian Investigative Committee confirmed the death of Sarkisian, stating that “despite the assistance provided, one of the victims died in a medical facility.”

Sarkisian, also known as the nickname “Armen Gordlovski” after Horlivka (Gorlovka in Russian), the Eastern Ukrainian city of which he is, founded the separatist Arbat Battalion, fighting in the region. Ukraine’s defense intelligence described him as a “famous criminal master” who became the “head of prisons” in Russia and occupied the territories of Ukraine in November 2022.

Ukrainian defense intelligence stated that the founding of Arbat in 2022 was an attempt to counteract the influence of Wagner leader Evgeny Prigajin in the Russian sector of the private military company. Prigosine was killed next year when his plane crashed two months after his debauchery attempt against Russia’s leadership.

The battalion fights in several key battles from the ongoing war in Ukraine, the War Study Institute (ISW) said earlier. Arbat was drawn up “almost entirely” by former Wagner staff, said US -based conflict monitor in October 2023.

Sarkisian was an ally of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the head of the Russian, who was removed after deadly protests in Ukraine in 2014 and fled to Russia, according to Ukrainian authorities. Sarkisian was wanted in Ukraine for his alleged role in the violent response to these demonstrations against Yanukovych.

Sarkisian was leaving the exclusive Aliye Parusa residential complex in northwestern Moscow on Monday morning when the explosion happened, said a local resident in a video published by the independent Russian media site SOTA.

Asked about the incident during a briefing at the press on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: “Special services are doing their jobs. It’s hard work. The information is clarified and the work continues, so it is impossible to comment on something at that moment. “

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