This incident, which killed the writer's driver, comes as drone strikes, sabotage and alleged attacks have multiplied in recent weeks on Russian territory, without their perpetrators being clearly identified.

The Kremlin blames Ukraine, which denies, as a major offensive by the Ukrainian armed forces and the major celebrations in Russia of May 9, the day of victory against Hitler, looms.

On Wednesday, an alleged drone attack hit a building in the Kremlin, the heart of Russian power. Kiev has denied any involvement.

"One person was killed by the explosion and the writer Zakhar Prilepin, who was in the car, was injured," said the Interior Ministry, which later claimed that a man "who could be linked to the explosion" had been arrested in the Nizhny Novgorod region (center-west), where the events took place.

Unnamed medical and security sources, quoted by Russian news agencies, say the writer was wounded in the legs.

"Zakhar (Prilepin) has minor fractures, there is no danger to his life," Gleb Nikitin, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, said on Telegram.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine, the United States, Britain and NATO of being behind the "terrorist" act. "Direct responsibility of the United States and Great Britain. We pray for Zakhar," she wrote on Telegram.

According to the Investigative Committee, which speaks of a "terrorist act", the writer was in his car "with his family" when the explosion occurred around 11:00 am (8:00 GMT) in a locality in the Borski district.

Photo released on May 6, 2023 by the Russian Investigative Committee, of a vehicle turned over on the roof and damaged by an explosion in which the Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin was injured, in the Nizhny Novgorod © region HANDOUT / Investigative Committee of Russi / AFP

A photo of the scene of the incident, released by the Investigation Committee, shows a white vehicle with a shredded front and turned over on the roof, in front of a crater on a dirt road, in a wooded area.

Nationalist and literary figure

A well-known figure on the Russian literary scene, translated into several countries, the 47-year-old writer became involved in 2014 in favour of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, alongside whom he fought.

Since then, he has regularly visited eastern Ukraine and defended President Vladimir Putin and his massive offensive against Kiev, launched on February 24, 2022.

Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin during a press conference for the release of his new book, February 21, 2017 in Moscow © Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP / Archives

Author of novels and short stories inspired by his personal experience, especially in war zones, he actively participates in patriotic and traditionalist movements in Russia.

Under European sanctions since the end of February 2022, he participated last year in a parliamentary group responsible for flushing out cultural actors in Russia with "anti-Russian positions".

"Russia is turning into Donbass (eastern region of Ukraine). A large number of people want to destroy it (...) I have no conscience about what is happening. It happened, now we have to go all the way," he said in an interview with Chita.ru media last November.

Before joining Vladimir Putin's regime, this veteran of the Chechen wars in the 1990s had been active for a time in the opposition within the national-Bolshevik party of the sulphurous writer Eduard Limonov (1943-2020).

Zakhar Prilepin is not the first figure in the Russian pro-war movement to be targeted by an attack. But he is luckier than others.

In early April, an influential military blogger, Vladlen Tatarskii (real name Maxim Fomin), a supporter of the offensive in Ukraine, was killed when a booby-trapped statuette exploded in a café in central St. Petersburg.

Police officers inspect a café where a bomb killed military blogger Vladlen Tatarskii and wounded 25 others, on April 2, 2023 in St. Petersburg, Russia © Olga MALTSEVA / AFP/Archives

And at the end of last August, Darya Dugina, the daughter of the imperialist ideologue Alexander Dugin, died in a car explosion in the Moscow region.

© 2023 AFP