The Basman Court of Moscow sentenced Georgian citizen Aleksandre Inasaridze to prison in absentia for organizing a terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge.
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According to Russian media reports, the court has approved the investigation's request to detain Inasaridze in absentia as a preventive measure. Today, the court made a similar decision regarding Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine.
The two-month pretrial detention period is counted from the moment of the defendants' extradition to the territory of the Russian Federation or their arrest in Russia.
Aleksandre Inasaridze is charged with three articles of the Criminal Code of Russia: terrorist act, illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, transfer, or carrying of explosive substances or devices, and smuggling of explosive substances.
On October 8, 2022, at dawn, a truck exploded on the Crimean Bridge, killing 5 people, including the driver, according to the Russian side. Russian law enforcement agencies reported that the explosive device, consisting of 21 tons of explosives made from hexogen, was hidden in polyethylene. The truck driver was Russian citizen Makhir Yusubov. According to the case files, he was not informed about the planned crime, and the explosion was carried out remotely.
Employees of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) arrested 8 people, 5 of whom are Russian citizens, and 3 are citizens of Ukraine and Armenia. According to the FSB, Georgian citizens Sandro Inasaridze and "Broker Levan" participated in the organization of the explosion. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia stated that the country "has nothing to do with this issue."
According to the indictment, the attackers purchased a large batch of explosives abroad and delivered them to the port of Odessa, Ukraine, in July 2022, where they were wrapped in rolls of construction polyethylene film. The cargo weighed 22.7 tons, with the main part being explosive. According to the case materials, at the beginning of August, the cargo was sent to the Bulgarian city of Ruse, from where it first arrived at the port of Poti in Georgia, and then in Armenia. The cargo was cleared at the Yerevan "Transalian" terminal following the rules of the Eurasian Economic Union, during which part of the documents were changed. On October 4, the cargo was transported to the Georgia-Russia border, through the "Zemo Larsi" checkpoint, by a DAF truck. In two days, it was delivered to the wholesale base of Armavir in the Krasnodar region, where it was placed in a truck with Russian license plates driven by Makhir Yusubov. The truck was headed to Simferopol, in occupied Crimea.
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, called the explosion on the Crimean Bridge a terrorist attack. Subsequently, the FSB identified Kirill Budanov, the head of the main intelligence division of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as the organizer of the terrorist attack.
The Security Service of Ukraine took responsibility for the explosion. In August 2023, the head of the service, Vasyl Maliuk, stated that he was personally involved in the "development and implementation of the special operation" along with two trusted employees.
The Russian Investigative Committee completed the investigation of the case in February 2024 and announced that 13 people were involved in the crime, 8 of whom
