Spain reportedly helped Maksim Kuzminov keep away from detection after he betrayed his nation
Spanish authorities supplied Russian helicopter pilot Maksim Kuzminov with a pretend ID after he defected to Ukraine and sacrificed his fellow crew members, El Pais reported on Friday. Kuzminov was gunned down within the resort city of Villajoyosa final week.
Kuzminov hijacked an Mi-8 cargo helicopter final August and flew it to Ukraine, reportedly taking a $500,000 reward from Kiev and dooming the craft’s two different crew members to being “liquidated.” After his betrayal, Kuzminov was settled on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, the place he lived below a false identification.
The Spanish authorities helped Kuzminov lay low by offering him with a pretend ID, El Pais reported, citing authorities sources. Whereas Madrid apparently furnished the traitor with solid paperwork, he was not positioned below any sort of safety, the newspaper added.
El Pais’ article backs up an analogous report by El Mundo, which claimed on Wednesday that Kuzminov had been handled as a “secret political refugee” by Spanish authorities.
Kuzminov was discovered useless final week, his physique riddled with bullets and run over by a automotive. The automobile believed to have been used within the hit was discovered torched a brief distance from the crime scene.
Whereas Spanish media initially recognized the deceased as a 33-year-old Ukrainian nationwide, Ukrainian navy intelligence swiftly named him as Kuzminov. In response to El Pais, the Spanish authorities believes {that a} Russian intelligence company was behind the hit.
Russia’s International Intelligence Service chief, Sergey Naryshkin, declined to touch upon the deadly capturing. Nevertheless, Naryshkin advised reporters that Kuzminov was a “traitor and prison” who “had already turn into an ethical corpse from the second when he plotted his soiled and heinous crime.”
Villajoyosa is residence to round 1,200 Ukrainians and 800 Russians, whereas greater than 11,000 Ukrainians and 17,457 Russians dwell within the wider area of Alicante, in line with census knowledge. El Pais described this area as a “lion’s den” for anybody concerned within the battle trying to lie low, stating that whereas Kuzminov apparently requested to be positioned within the space, he averted buying at Jap European shops or visiting a well-liked native Orthodox church.
The Spanish authorities has refused to touch upon any particulars of the case, with spokeswoman Pilar Alegria telling reporters on Tuesday that it’s “below investigation.”
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