1/ The killer of the deputy mayor of Stavropol, former Russian army major Zaur Gurtsiev, is reported to have been a man whom he met on a gay dating website. The man, Nikita Penkov, may not have known he was carrying a bomb. ⬇️
https://x.com/front_ukrainian/status/1927977998210207774?t=vra1IwA7XmAo7jpOqUCe1Q&s=19
2/ Apparent details from the police investigation have been reported by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. According to the channel, Gurtsiev met Penkov on a gay dating website. The two were said to have been meeting for the first time in a discreet nighttime rendezvous.
3/ "During the investigation, explicit correspondence was found, where they sent each other naked photos, etc.
4/ "The deputy head of the city had already invited his new acquaintance to spend time together, but each time the meeting had to be cancelled, due to Gurtsiev's business trips. Until last night.
5/ "Zaur Gurtsiev and Nikita Penkov had agreed on the meeting place in advance. As soon as they got close, an explosion occurred. According to preliminary data, the IED was in Nikita Penkov's shoulder bag. Inside the bomb were fragmentation elements – balls for an air gun.
6/ “Penkov, judging by preliminary data, was hired by unknown persons to collect dirt on Gurtsiev and supplied with 'special equipment' that transmits a 'picture'. An IED was installed in the special equipment."
7/ The channel reports that Russian security forces believe that Penkov was recruited by an as yet unknown "handler" to expose Gurtsiev as a "hidden representative of the LGBT community banned in the Russian Federation."
8/ Penkov had previously been employed by the Federal Penitentiary Service until April 2025. His mother urged him to apply for a police job back home, but he declined as he told her had "found himself a good and highly paid job, and is already doing an internship."
9/ The 'internship' is likely to have been the fake job that cost Penkov his life. His handler is said to have instructed him to join the gay dating website where he met Gurtsiev. It's likely that Penkov believed he was working for the FSB to carry out activities on its behalf.
10/ While nobody has yet claimed responsibility for Gurtsiev's death, Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of recruiting their own citizens via Telegram or other channels to carry out sabotage attacks, often on the pretence of working for their own side's security forces.
11/ This has sometimes led to people being used as unwitting suicide bombers, as in the case of several Ukrainian teens recruited by the Russians, or the Russian truck driver recruited by the Ukrainians to carry a massive bomb onto the Kerch Bridge in October 2022. /end
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