It became known about the detention of a Russian, Igor Grechushkin, associated with the explosion in Beirut. Al Jazeera correspondent Timur Azhari wrote about this on his Twitter.
Grechushkin was detained by the Cypriot police at the request of the Lebanese authorities and Interpol. It is emphasized that the Russian was not arrested, he was simply “asked a few questions.”
The fact that the Cypriot security services began to search for the man became known on August 5. The cargo of ammonium nitrate, which supposedly caused a powerful explosion in Beirut, was confiscated from the Rhosus vessel, which belonged to Igor Grechushkin, a Khabarovsk resident. The Russians and Ukrainians who worked for Rhosus had to stay in Lebanon for a year as the owner went bankrupt and abandoned the ship.
A powerful explosion occurred in the port area on the evening of 4 August. The damage was inflicted on many quarters of the city, the blast wave also hit the Russian embassy. According to the latest data, more than 4 thousand people were injured, at least 300 thousand lost their homes. The bodies of more than a hundred dead have been found.
The Lebanese law enforcement agencies said that the explosion happened at the time of welding. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diyab said the explosion was due to the storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse in the seaport of the capital for six years. The explosive substance was there without adequate security measures and threatened the lives of citizens, Diyab added.
