These findings were reported by The New York Times with reference to Spanish investigators who are dealing with the violent death of Kuzminov. The 28-year-old pilot, who held the rank of captain in the Russian army, was found dead this February on the ramp of a garage in the Spanish Mediterranean resort of La Villajoyosa.
“It was a clear message. I will find you and kill you. I will run you over and humiliate you,” said a senior Spanish police official. He admitted that Kuzminov lived an “indiscreet life” in Spain. He went to bars popular with Russian and Ukrainian clientele and spent money he received from the Ukrainian state. He drove around town in a black Mercedes.
According to investigators, the killers left an important clue to their identity: cartridges from a 9-millimeter Makarov pistol, which was the standard ammunition in the countries of the former communist bloc.
The Russian pilot, who also escaped with the helicopter, was found dead in Spain
The war in Ukraine
How exactly the killers found Kuzminov has not yet been established. According to earlier claims by two senior Ukrainian officials, the pilot contacted an ex-girlfriend who still lives in Russia and invited her to visit him in Spain. “That was a serious mistake,” said one of them.
Spanish police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the killing bore the hallmarks of similar attacks linked to the Kremlin, including the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin or the 2018 poisoning of former Russian military intelligence agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.
“They Were Professionals”
The two hooded killers who appeared on security camera footage from the garages of Kuzminov’s apartment complex were apparently professionals who had completed their mission and quickly disappeared, police officials said.
“Here in Spain, it’s not common for someone to be shot with a lot of ammunition,” added Pepe Álvarez, police chief in La Villajoyosa. “These are indications that point to organized crime, to professionals,” he said.
Although no evidence of direct Russian involvement in Kuzminov’s murder has emerged, Moscow has made no secret of its desire for the pilot’s death. A few weeks after his defection, Russian television aired a program in which it quoted the pilot’s colleagues and members of Russian military intelligence commandos as vowing revenge.
“We will find this man and punish him with all the severity of the laws of our land. For high treason and for betraying his brothers. Eventually we will find them all. Our arms are long,” said one of the commandos.
Kuzminov’s defection was organized by the Ukrainian military intelligence HUR. She gave him half a million dollars (11.7 million CZK), a Ukrainian passport and a fake name.
He behaved like Judas, defiled the murdered Russian pilot’s own father
Europe
