Russia accuses Ukraine of plot to ‘murder’ pro-Kremlin media figures
- Russia says it foiled a plot to assassinate pro-Kremlin TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov and others, on orders from Ukraine
- Other targets were said to include the managing director of state media company RT as well as RT’s editor-in-chief
Russia’s domestic intelligence service, the FSB, announced the detention of six individuals who, it alleges, were plotting to assassinate leading figures in Russia’s state media on the orders of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told state prosecutors at a televised meeting on Monday that a terrorist group intending to murder television presenter Vladimir Solovyov, among others, had been neutralised in a special counterterrorism operation.
SBU officials in Kyiv declined to comment on what they described as the “fantasies of the Russian intelligence services”.
Solovyov, who has been sanctioned by the EU as a “propagandist” and had villas seized by Italian financial police, is one of the most important supporters of the Kremlin line on Russian state television and is regarded as a Russian propagandist by the Ukrainian government.
The managing director of the state media company RT (formerly Russia Today), Dmitry Kiselyov, and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, were also named as potential targets of the group, along with presenter and commentator Olga Skabeyeva.
According to the state investigating committee in Moscow, six Russian members of a “neo-Nazi” splinter group have been detained and explosives, firearms and grenades have been seized.
The group had intended to blow up Solovyov in his car before escaping to Ukraine, it said.
Russia’s FSB security agency said that the group “confessed to preparing the murder of Solovyov, after which they planned to flee abroad”.
“What’s surprising about this? I am on view to everyone,” Solovyov said in comments on the alleged plot to the RIA Novosti news agency.
“I am a Jew and an anti-Fascist so it’s obvious that I’m a target for (Ukrainian nationalist Stepan) Bandera-supporting, Nazi bastards,” he added.
Speaking at the meeting of Russian prosecutors, Putin suggested Washington was involved in planning the “murder of a famous Russian TV journalist”, without naming him.
“They have resorted to terror! To preparing the murders of our journalists. We know by name the curators of Western secret services, primarily, of course, from the CIA, who work with the security agencies of Ukraine,” Putin said in televised remarks.
“Apparently they give such advice (to kill journalists). So much for their attitude towards the rights of journalists … (and) human rights in general,” Putin added.
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A staunch supporter of Putin and Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Solovyov has only questioned the navy’s competence after the flagship cruiser Moskva sunk in the Black Sea off Odesa.
Last week, Solovyov said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was approaching a “new stage” in which Moscow will find itself at war with Nato – and by extension, the entire world.
“I believe the special military operation is entering a new stage. Ukrainians alone are no longer enough,” said Vladimir Solovyov, according to the translation of a video clip tweeted on Thursday by The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis.
In the widely shared clip, Solovyov noted that Nato countries have been supplying weapons to Ukraine. “We’ll see not only Nato weapons being drawn into this, but also their operators,” he warned while speaking on his show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov.
dpa, Agence France-Presse and Business Insider
