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Suspect in Killing of Top Russian General Charged with Terrorism

A detainee, named as Uzbek national Akhmad Kurbanov and considered by investigators as a suspect in the murder of chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov along with his assistant, sits inside an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova
A detainee, named as Uzbek national Akhmad Kurbanov and considered by investigators as a suspect in the murder of chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov along with his assistant, sits inside an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova
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Suspect in Killing of Top Russian General Charged with Terrorism

A detainee, named as Uzbek national Akhmad Kurbanov and considered by investigators as a suspect in the murder of chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov along with his assistant, sits inside an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova
A detainee, named as Uzbek national Akhmad Kurbanov and considered by investigators as a suspect in the murder of chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov along with his assistant, sits inside an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova

The suspect in the killing of top Russian general Igor Kirillov has been charged with an act of terrorism resulting in the death of a person, a notice on the website of the Moscow court said on Thursday.

Russia said on Wednesday it had detained an Uzbek man who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb in Moscow which killed Kirillov, who was the chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, on the instructions of Ukraine's SBU security service.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that the unnamed suspect identifed as Akhmad Kurbanov had told them he had come to Moscow to carry out an assignment for Ukraine's intelligence services.
In a video published by the Baza news outlet, which is known to have sources in Russian law-enforcement circles, the suspect is seen sitting in a van describing his actions.

He describes placing the device on the electric scooter and parking it outside the apartment block where Kirillov lived.
Investigators cited him as saying he set up a surveillance camera in a hire car which, they said, was watched in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro by people who organized the killing.
The suspect, who is thought to be 29, is shown saying he remotely detonated the device when Kirillov left the building. He says Ukraine had offered him $100,000 and residency in a European country.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said Moscow would raise the assassination at the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 20.

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US Waving a ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy at Iran

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
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US Waving a ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy at Iran

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave Iran a choice between focusing on itself and on trying to build a better country for its people, or bear the consequences of continuing its engagement in what he called “misadventures” throughout the region and beyond.
During a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, the outgoing Secretary of State reflected on the carrot-and-stick policy that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump could adopt towards Iran.
He said there is a prospect of negotiations with Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal. However, he urged the policy of continued pressure on Iranian authorities to stop their nuclear policies in the Middle East.
Asked about the possibility of Iran accelerating its nuclear program in light of its failures in various parts of the Middle East, notably after Tehran lost its primary proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and after the fall of the regime of its ally Assad, Blinken said “There’s no doubt this has not been a good year for Iran.”
He noted that Iran has to make some fundamental choices.
One choice, Blinken said, “is to focus on itself and focus on trying to build a better, more successful country that delivers for its people, which is clearly what most Iranians want, and to stop getting involved in these adventures – or misadventures – throughout the region and beyond.”
The outgoing Secretary of State also affirmed that Iran desperately needs to be focused on its economy, on growing the country, and delivering for people.
If they don’t make that choice, he said, “they have some hard decisions to make, yes, about where they’re going to go in the future to be able to sustain the kind of troublemaking that, unfortunately, they’ve been engaged in for many, many years.”
Blinken said he doesn’t think that a nuclear weapon is inevitable.
“I think this is something that may be more a question now because as they’ve lost different tools, as they’ve lost different lines of defense, sure, you’re going to see more thinking about that.”
He warned the costs and consequences to Iran for pursuing that route would be severe. “So I am hopeful that that remains in check,” he said.
Blinken then reiterated the position of President Joe Biden’s administration, saying that the so-called JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, was capable to take off the prospect of Iran getting to a nuclear weapon anytime soon by bottling up, tying up the fissile material, making sure their breakout time in producing enough fissile material for a bomb was pushed back beyond a year.
He said now that breakout time in terms of the production of fissile material is a matter of a week or two.
“They don’t have a weapon, and the weaponization piece would take them some time,” he added.
The Secretary of State then called on the next administration to find a way to engage this, because the production of 60 percent enriched uranium gives them the capacity, at least in terms of fissile material, to produce multiple weapons’ worth of material in very short order.
Asked about the prospect of a negotiation of a new nuclear deal with Iran, Blinken said there is the prospect of negotiations.
“Of course, it depends on what Iran chooses to do and whether it chooses to engage in meaningfully,” he said. “And of course, the incoming administration will have to make a decision.”
He recalled how President Trump last time around pulled out of the deal, and wanted, as he called it, a better, stronger deal. “Fine. Let’s see what’s possible,” Blinken said.
He then revealed that from administration to administration, whether it’s the Biden, the Trump or the Obama administration, there’s been a shared determination and a shared determination that remains to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.
Huge Opportunity
Blinken’s comments came shortly after White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that Iran is at its “weakest point in decades,” after the fracturing of the Axis of Resistance.
The advisor also spoke about the huge opportunity” to advance regional integration.
At an event in New York, he said recent events in the Middle East — including the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the toppling of Bashar Assad in Syria — present a “huge opportunity” to advance regional integration.
When asked about efforts to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Sullivan affirmed that Saudi leaders have already said in recent months that a deal cannot move forward without a commitment by Israel to the creation of a Palestinian state.