The father of a man who died on Russia's stricken Moskva cruiser has been targeted by Russian security services after threatening to expose what happened to the lost crew.
Dmitry Shkrebets, 43, has led a solo campaign for transparency and justice on the fate of the Black Sea Fleet flagship which was sunk on April 14.
His son Yegor was lost in the sinking as a 20-year-old conscript, despite Putin publicly insisting that draftees would not be sent to war.
Shkrebets claims he has been interrogated for alleged terrorist offences after intelligence officials made “fake” claims that he had sent bomb threats.
This alleged bid to repress him with trumped-up charges comes as sensational new details emerged about the sinking of the Moskva.
Former intelligence Igor Strelkov, 51, told how the warship was hit by two suspected Ukrainian Neptune missiles, one in the bow, the second in the stern ‘below the waterline’.
The army veteran was formerly a staunchly pro-Vladimir Putin commander of clandestine military operations during the annexation of Crimea and in Donbas in 2014.
“[There were] two missiles. The first [hit] the bow of the ship, the second hit the stern, below the waterline,” he told TV presenter Andrei Kovalyov.
“Initially the artillery cellar of the 130-mm tower blew up as a result of the first strike. Then the ammunition for two Vulkans, these are anti-aircraft guns, multi-stem.
“There was smoke. The command post was disabled.”
Russia has not admitted Strelkov's version that the attack took the crew's commanders by surprise.
Instead, the country claims the vessel sank from an on board fire and explosion.
“The S-300 [missile defence] were not even open,” Strelkov continued.
“And at that very moment the second missile hit the hold. The cruiser tilted on the left and after some time it sank.”
The Moskva sank between one and three hours after the strike, said Strelkov, real name Igor Girkin who is wanted in the West over the shooting down flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
When quizzed by Kovalyov, he played down rumours that the West, rather than Ukraine, had fired the missiles which sank the Moskva.
“Were those Ukrainian missiles….? There are rumours circulating that someone else launched them,” said the presenter.
“Who else…?” replied Strelkov.
“I do not rule out anything, our dear Western partners might launch, but I do not know that.”
Shkrebets revealed that interrogators had been sent to him by Russian secret services after he publicly criticised the failure to reveal the true death toll on the Moskva which had 510 crew members including an estimated 300 conscripts.
He accused them of concocting a bogus story that he had sent bomb threats from his laptop.
"I'm even embarrassed for those serious, smart and really polite people who were forced to visit me because of such a bestial fake,” the dad said.
"It seemed to someone that the tragic death of my son did not shock me enough, not enough grief, not enough trouble.”
Authorities seem to want to gag him after he said earlier: “There were no rescue efforts. Officers fled the ship like rats, the sailors were abandoned.”
Shkrebets vowed: “Putin will answer personally. He is used to lying.”
The parent has demanded that the authorities come clean about the real death toll - officially just one - amid suspicions dozens, or even hundreds, perished.
And he has threatened to reveal more details, while insisting he is a true patriot to Russia.
Defying warnings to stay silent, he asked: “Want to know why there were no badly wounded survivors from the Moskva? Because they sank them together with the cruiser.
“They couldn’t tug the ship to Sevastopol, because everyone would realise what happened, so overnight from 13 to 14 April they pulled it further south, and sank it.
“This is the naked truth. The scary, awful truth, and I’ll prove it. The time will pass, and I’ll prove it.
“Look at the awful beasts we have as our authorities.”
Denying there was any evidence of a bomb threat on his confiscated computer, he said: “You can’t make a terrorist out of someone who can never be one by nature, mindset and character.”
He called on officials who know the fate of the Moskva to admit it.
“I can call myself a patriot in the healthy sense of the word,” he said.
“I can't understand why everyone is silent. We've lost our flagship, we've lost our people - and it's like nothing happened.”
The head of the Black Sea Fleet Admiral Igor Osipov has not been seen in public since the ship sank.
