In Russia, increasingly fantastical theories continue to be proposed concerning the elimination of a criminal authority from Horlivka, Armen Sarkisyan. The so-called "president of the DPR boxing federation" died from injuries sustained on February 3 during an explosion in the "Red Sails" residential complex in Moscow.
After theories about explosives allegedly planted in advance in the building, Russian law enforcement announced about a "suicide bomber" with a "sword-shaped tattoo." This was reported by Russian media.
The story of Sarkisyan’s elimination is acquiring increasingly bizarre "details." This time, Russian propagandists, citing law enforcement, began to describe a suspected killer, who supposedly belonged to "elite troops" and carried an explosive device on his own body.
"The explosion in the ’Red Sails’ residential complex in Moscow may have been carried out by a suicide bomber. Forensics determined that the bomber was a previously convicted citizen of Armenia. When Armen Sarkisyan exited the elevator, the suicide bomber activated the explosive device. On the left shin of the deceased killer was a tattoo in the shape of a sword, which may indicate his former affiliation with elite troops. Law enforcement also detained several possible accomplices of the killer," reports one of the Russian media outlets.
The possible motives for Sarkisyan’s removal are also multiplying. Besides the already traditional "Ukrainian trace" for any event in Russia (the Horlivka "authority" was involved in creating the occupation battalion "ArBat," formed from those convicted of murder, robbery, and other serious crimes), there was previously speculation about a murder organized by competitors in the tobacco market.
Now Russian media are discussing more exotic assumptions: "blood revenge." At the same time, it is noted that it was carried out not with a homemade explosive device, but using an anti-personnel fragmentation mine MON-50.
"A source close to the investigation reported that according to preliminary expert conclusions, the explosion in the lobby of the elite ’Red Sails’ residential complex was not a homemade explosive device but a standard army mine MON-50—a fragmentation anti-personnel mine containing 700 g of explosives and over 1 kg of metal balls, which affect everything within a radius of fifty meters," writes one of the propagandistic Russian media outlets.
Unlike most "colleagues" who claim that the "suicide bomber" was not identified due to a face disfigured by the explosion, this publication asserts that the investigation supposedly identified the individual.
"The deceased—a native of Armenia, previously convicted. Why he decided to eliminate the creator of ’ArBat’ is not yet clear. Perhaps it concerns blood revenge," the report states.
Interestingly, on the eve of Sarkisyan’s elimination, the flight of propagandists’ fantasy did not go so far: they wrote about a "homemade explosive device based on a grenade, set in a sofa or chair in the lobby where the explosion occurred."
Such rapid changes in versions regarding the motives and execution of the murder, as well as the apparent trend to heroize a clear bandit like Sarkisyan, even outraged Russians.
"What a twist!", "Wow! They’ve come to this...", "Make up your mind with the information already! The news said his guard died!", "Then who got out? Who is the police looking for?", "This is crazy. We’ve come to this. It’s not Moscow, it’s some Mogadishu", "Maybe he didn’t know he was a suicide bomber. Two birds with one stone, right?", "This is something new, it doesn’t seem...not jihadists or Wahhabis...it’s Banderites and Nazis...", "Delivery from Yandex?", "Not a fact that the suicide bomber knew he was a suicide bomber", "Elite troops operate in an elite manner. Turned into mincemeat", "Not even ’president of DPR boxing’ anymore. Tomorrow it’ll be ’Hero of SVO’?", "I hope they don’t think of giving this gangster a hero title", "Lies," write commenters under the post about the "suicide bomber" in one of the pro-Kremlin million-follower public pages.
Recall, on the morning before, an explosion occurred in the "Red Sails" residential complex in Moscow, resulting in the death of the president of the "DPR" Boxing Federation, a criminal authority from Horlivka, Armen Sarkisyan, and several others were injured. Most of the injured sustained leg injuries: two of the wounded had open fractures of the shins, and Sarkisyan’s leg was torn off: he died in the hospital without regaining consciousness.