A Spanish court has suspended its investigation into the killing of a Russian military pilot who defected to Ukraine in the summer of 2023, citing an absence of identifiable suspects.
The decision comes over a year after the pilot, who had resettled in southeastern Spain, was shot dead in a residential parking garage on the Mediterranean coast.
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According to Reuters, Spain’s judicial authority said Monday that the probe into the Feb. 13 killing of 28-year-old Maxim Kuzminov has been indefinitely suspended. Officials said investigators had been unable to determine who carried out the attack or who may have ordered it.
Kuzminov’s high-stakes defection
Kuzminov, a Russian military pilot disillusioned with Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was recruited online by Ukrainian intelligence and flew a Russian Mi-8 helicopter from the Kursk region to Ukraine on Aug. 9, 2023.
He crossed the front line undetected by flying at low altitude, handing over the aircraft, sensitive equipment and classified Russian intelligence to Ukrainian forces.
Kuzminov’s defection was touted in 2023 as a significant intelligence gain for Kyiv at a time when Ukraine was seeking to undermine Russia’s war effort. Speaking at a news conference after his arrival, he said he could not understand why his “beloved motherland” had launched a war against Ukraine.
“I don’t want to be an accomplice of Russian crimes... When Ukraine wins, it’s only a matter of time,” Kuzimov said.
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Despite warnings from Ukrainian intelligence, he later departed Ukraine and resettled in Spain, purchasing an apartment in Villajoyosa, a coastal town near Alicante, where he was found dead on Feb. 13, 2024.
Many of the year-round residents are Russians and Ukrainians, and Kuzminov did not keep a low profile there. According to a neighbor, he frequented a local bar and was heard boasting about his identity.
Mounting indicators of Russian involvement
Michael Weiss, the US editor at The Insider – an investigative outlet founded by Russian journalists in exile – told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he is convinced Russian special services carried out the killing.
“It’s leading back to Moscow, which they want you to know,” Weiss said. “You can’t prove it was us – but come on, let’s be honest, you know it was us.”
Kuzminov’s killing was openly celebrated on Russian state television. When asked about his death, former Russian Prime Minister and current Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev responded bluntly in Russian: “For a dog, a dog’s death.”
A source close to the Spanish investigation provided 60 Minutes with photographs of men who were in Spain at the time of the killing, describing them as “persons of interest.”
The TV news magazine identified one of the men as a former KGB officer and another as his relative, a Russian police colonel, a finding that raises further questions about possible Russian state participation.
Suspected Kremlin operations in Europe
Senior Spanish police officials told The New York Times the operation bore similarities to previous suspected Russian overseas attacks.
Those cases include the 2019 murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin by Vadim Krasikov, an officer employed by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) later released in a 2024 prisoner swap, and the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury attributed to Russian military intelligence operatives.
Kuzminov’s defection and subsequent killing drew international attention amid a series of cases in which Russian dissidents, defectors, or security targets abroad have been attacked under circumstances Western officials have often linked to Russian intelligence services.
Russia has repeatedly denied any role in assassinations or attempted killings of Kremlin opponents or defectors abroad.
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