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Zakhar Prilepin is one of Russia’s most famous authors and a veteran supporter of ultranationalist politics.
A Russian pro-war writer who was seriously injured in a car bomb on Saturday is now in a medically induced coma, his spokesman said.
Zakhar Prilepin, a strong supporter of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine, was injured while driving in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region. His driver died.
Investigators claim that one suspect, Alexander Permyakov, admitted to working in Ukraine.
On Sunday, Prilepin’s spokesman said the author was “feeling good”.
“He is in the best spirits that the situation can provide. He is fine. He has passed on his gratitude to his family,” state media quoted his spokeswoman Yelizaveta Kondakova as saying.
Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin wrote in Telegram that the writer’s condition is “stable” and that “his mood is happy”.
The extent of the injuries Prilepin sustained in the explosion – which also killed his driver – is unclear.
On Saturday the Russian interior ministry said he suffered a concussion and fractures, but gave no further details.
The prize-winning author and veteran of Moscow’s bloody wars in Chechnya is one of Russia’s most popular writers, and before 2014 was a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin.
But in recent years Prilepin – long known for his involvement in ultranationalist politics in Russia – appears to have reconciled with Mr Putin and has become a staunch supporter of the invasion of Ukraine.
The 47-year-old admitted to fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and called for “the return of Kyiv to Russia”.
Last year a group founded by Prilepin called on officials to “cleanse the cultural space” of all opposition to the conflict.
Russia’s Investigative Committee (SK), which oversees serious crimes including terrorism, accused Alexander Permyakov of setting off a remote-controlled bomb, which destroyed Prilepin’s Audi.
The bomb was allegedly placed on the road and detonated from a distance
SK said he was caught in a neighboring village. The region is more than 425km (265 miles) east of Moscow.
He “admitted to doing a task for the Ukrainian secret services”, the SK says.
The partisan group Atesh, made up of Ukrainians and Crimean Tartars, claimed that it was behind the attack on Prilepin.
“We have a feeling that sooner or later he will break,” they wrote in Telegram. “He wasn’t driving alone, but there was a surprise under the car.”
The BBC could not verify Atesh’s claims.
The security service of Ukraine (SBU) issued its standard response, refusing to comment on the attack or on an allegation by the Russian foreign ministry that Ukraine – supported by the US government – targeted Prilepin.
The attack is the latest target of high-profile supporters of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Vladlen Tatarsky was killed last month. The blogger reports from the front line in Ukraine and became famous last year after posting a video filmed inside the Kremlin in which he said: “We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will steal everything if necessary. As we like it. .”
Activist Darya Trepova, 26, was later arrested and charged with terrorism after publishing a video – believed to have been recorded under duress – in which she admitted to bringing a statue to the cafe which later exploded.
It is believed that his father, the ultra-nationalist Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, known as “Putin’s mastermind”, may have been the intended target of the attack.
