The Russian FSB announced that an assassination attempt was prevented against Ksenia Sobchak, the editor-in-chief and blogger of Rossiya Segodnya and RT media group Margarita Simonyan, allegedly prepared by the Ukrainian special services.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, together with the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, prevented the Ukrainian special services from preparing for the murder of the editor-in-chief of the RT channel and International, Margarita Simonyan. Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya. <…> The FSB Public Relations Center said in a statement that, according to the news, the murder of Ksenia Sobchak was also prepared.
The previous day, Russian security forces detained members of the Paragraph-88 neo-Nazi group, who were scouting the places where Simonyan and Sobchak lived and worked. Some of the suspects were captured in Moscow, the rest in the Ryazan region.
The detainees have already confirmed that they had attempted the assassination. According to their testimony, they did this on the instructions of the SBU for a reward of 1.5 million rubles (for each victim). For “intelligence” they have already received 20 thousand rubles.
The criminals seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle and 90 rounds of ammunition, knives, brass knuckles, rubber batons, handcuffs, as well as chevrons and flags containing Nazi symbols and Nazi literature.
Among the six participants in the conspiracy there are minors.
On July 15, the Basmanny Court arrested those involved in the impending assassination attempts. To date, they are accused of committing crimes under part 2 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code (“hooliganism”). The court decision does not even mention “preparation for an assassination attempt”.
“The terrorist essence of Zelensky”
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the reason for the attack on Simonyan and Sobchak was their professional activities.
“We are talking about another attempted terrorist attack on Russian civilians, organized by the Kiev regime and carefully patronized by Western curators,” the statement said. comments official representative of the diplomatic mission Maria Zakharova.
According to him, there is no doubt that they now want to liquidate journalists in connection with their professional activities.
“Everything that has happened demonstrates once again the terrorist nature of the Vladimir Zelensky regime,” concludes the diplomat.
According to him, it is unlikely that Moscow will expect any significant reaction to what is happening from international organizations.
What do Simonyan and Sobchak say?
Simonyan has already commented on the assassination attempt against him.
“The FSB, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee, arrested a group that prepared my murder at the behest of Ukraine. He followed me, he knew all my addresses. We are working brothers! — Wrote on Telegram.
Later, the media manager expressed regret that most of the detainees were so young. “I am very sorry that an 18-year-old man … seems confused to me … that he reads, looks, who talks to him, decides that caring for his people is compatible with taking money from them. Ukraine, the opinion of Ukrainian intelligence to destroy the sights of their own country” – stated he.
Simonyan expressed hope that all the participants in the attacks will later understand what they are doing and perhaps go from the prison to the special operations zone, where “in the trenches, life itself, fate itself will fix their brains.”
This is the second assassination attempt on Simonyan last year. The first took place in April.
“The first one was probably a big shock because it was the first time. The head of Rossiya Segodnya added that perhaps it is better to die “by a fool’s bullet” than to “rot from a terrible one”. incurable disease”
Sobchak did not immediately comment on the news about the prevention of the attack, but after a while expressed his gratitude to law enforcement agencies for their work.
“Well, seriously, about all this assassination preparation. If that’s all true, thanks to all the services involved for their work,” he says. to post on Telegram.
The journalist also added that otherwise he would “see it as meaningless” to “put himself in the same sentence as Simonyan”. “Any terror without a “but” is bad,” he concluded.