The bomb attacks that injured dozens in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk could have been part of a feud between criminal business groups, ZN.UA daily said, quoting a National Security Service official.
Ten bombs rocked Dnepropetrovsk on April 27, injuring 30, including eleven teenagers, according to official information. Prosecutors have called the event a terror attack but so far no one has claimed responsibility. Police have circulated identikits of three suspects.
According to unofficial information, special services are more inclined to believe that the blasts were a result of some redistribution of interests between criminal business groups.
“The city is being shaken by a struggle between local business groups with criminal ties,” an official in the Ukrainian National Security Service said. “Two weeks ago, influential businessman Gennady Akselrod, notorious for his raider activities, was killed. We have every reason to believe that these bombs were not connected with politics.”
Owner of several construction companies, Akselrod was killed near his house in downtown Dnepropetrovsk in April. Ukrainian media said he was part of a group that had got hold of the property of former premier Pavlo Lazarenko who is currently serving a jail term in the U.S. for money laundering.
On Saturday, Ukrainian top investigator Vasyl Farynnik denied any political motives behind the blasts, which was echoed by Volodymyr Rokytsky, first deputy chief of the National Security Service.
“I don’t see any politics in it [the attack]. It is criminal in nature,” Farynnik said in an interview with Inter TV channel.
