Russian law enforcement agencies have thwarted assassination attempts on RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and journalist Ksenia Sobchak, which were prepared by Ukrainian intelligence, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.
In a statement on Saturday, the agency said that together with the Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee, it had arrested an unspecified number of “neo-Nazis from the Paragraph 88 group who were gathering information at the work and home addresses of Simonyan and Sobchak.”
During the operation, which took place on Friday in Moscow and Ryazan Regions, central Russia, law enforcement agents seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle, ammunition, rubber hoses, knives, brass knuckles and handcuffs, the FSB said.
It added that operatives have also confiscated chevrons and flags along with Nazi paraphernalia and Nazi literature, as well as communications equipment and computers with information confirming their criminal intentions.
“The detainees confirmed that they were preparing assassinations on the instructions of the Security Service of Ukraine for a reward of 1.5 million rubles ($16,600) for each murder,” the statement said.
The agency also released several pictures from the apparent search, featuring an SS-insignia, and several books about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, including his autobiography Mein Kampf, which is considered to be extremist in Russia.
The FSB also shared a clip showing a suspect who admitted that he had created a neo-Nazi group, recruited his underage friends, and staged attacks on people of non-Slavic appearance. He said that he was later contacted by Ukrainian special services, who first told him to stage diversions and then to kill Simonyan and Sobchak.
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