Two natives of Ingushetia are set to stand trial as participants in the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the Head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces. The Russian Investigative Committee has classified the incident as a terrorist act.
There are four defendants in total: Ramazan Padiev and Batukhan Tochiev from Ingushetia, as well as Uzbek national Akhmadzhon Kurbonov and Robert Safaryan, from Azerbaijan. Depending on their roles, they face a variety of criminal charges, including participation in a terrorist organisation, carrying out a terrorist act as part of an organised group, illegal trafficking of explosive devices, and manufacturing explosive devices.
According to investigators, Tochiev and Padiev did not take direct part in organising the explosion on 17 December last year, which killed Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov. Their alleged role was to rent a safe flat where Kurbonov, the actual perpetrator of the attack, was supposed to hide after the explosion. The authorities claim this flat was rented in the Moscow region in November 2024.
‘According to operational services, shortly before the attack, one of the alleged accomplices, who had previously served time for robbery, received a call from an acquaintance living abroad. The acquaintance asked him to find inconspicuous housing for “an Asian man”. Rather than looking for a flat himself, he asked a fellow countryman from Ingushetia to do it’, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.
The article noted that the two were offered several options, including a short-term rental in Elektrougli, a small city in the Moscow region, which they secured via a money transfer. They then handed the keys to Kurbonov after meeting him in a Moscow shopping centre.
From these accounts, it remains unclear whether Padiev and Tochiev were aware of the planned attack.
According to information published by Russian state media, citing law enforcement agencies, Kurbonov assembled the explosive device under the supervision of handlers from Ukraine and planted it in an electric scooter parked near the entrance of a residential building on Ryazansky Avenue. The device was remotely detonated when Kirillov left his home.
The explosion also damaged property belonging to Kirillov’s neighbours: 14 cars and 28 flats were affected, with total losses exceeding ₽3.3 million ($40,000), according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Kommersant described Padiev and Tochiev as members of the religious group known as the Batal-Khadzhi Brotherhood. This brotherhood, widespread in Ingushetia, has been designated an extremist organisation in Russia. The group follows strict internal rules, maintains a rigid hierarchy, and has a closed structure — membership is limited mainly to relatives.
Members of the same brotherhood from Ingushetia, Dzhabrail Aushev and Khusein Medov, were previously arrested for allegedly assisting the perpetrators of the March 2024 terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow. According to investigators, Aushev and Medov provided firearms and ammunition to the attackers, who were citizens of Tajikistan. The attack killed 145 people and injured more than 500.
However, representatives of the Batal-Khadzhi Brotherhood have denied that Padiev and Tochiev are connected to them. In comments to the independent Ingush media outlet Fortanga, a representative of the brotherhood said that both men ‘left the group voluntarily’.
Kirillov had headed Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces since 2017. Investigators claim that components of the explosive device used in his killing were smuggled into Russia from abroad, including from Poland, and delivered through intermediaries.
OC Media
