Uzbek Man Sentenced to Life for Assassinating Russian General Kirillov

Details of the Assassination Case

MOSCOW, Jan 21 (Reuters) - An Uzbek man was handed a life sentence on Wednesday after a military court in Moscow found him guilty of killing top Russian general Igor Kirillov and his assistant in a Ukraine-backed bomb attack in 2024.

Background on Igor Kirillov

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed outside an apartment building in Moscow after a bomb hidden in an electric scooter was remotely detonated in December 2024.

Charges Against Akhmadzhon Kurbonov

Ukraine's SBU intelligence service said it was behind the high-profile hit, one of a string of targeted killings it has organised inside Russia to punish people it deems responsible for Moscow's war in Ukraine. Russia says the killings amount to acts of state terrorism.

Implications of the Murder

Uzbek national Akhmadzhon Kurbonov and three accomplices were found guilty of various crimes related to the Kirillov killing, including terrorism and the illegal trafficking of explosives, Russian investigators said on Wednesday.

The three accomplices were given jail sentences in maximum security correctional prison camps ranging from 18 to 25 years, the Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said in a statement.

Kurbonov, who is now due to spend the rest of his life in a special regime correctional prison camp, pleaded guilty to the charges, while the others did not, Russian media reported. Reuters was not able to contact lawyers for the men.

The Investigative Committee said Kirillov's murder had been planned in Ukraine.

The perpetrators had smuggled the explosives into Russia from Poland, and one of the four men, Robert Safaryan, had stored the components at his home in Russia, it said.

Kurbonov had then assembled the bomb, planted it and remotely detonated it as Kirillov and Polikarpov stepped out of the building.

A string of senior Russian military figures have been killed since the start of the war in Ukraine nearly four years ago.

The latest was Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff's army operational training directorate, who died after a bomb planted under his car went off last month.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for Sarvarov's death.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn)