Members of a Russian neo-Nazi group, “National Socialism/White Power” (NSWP), were arrested and charged with preparations for the assassinations of several Russian journalists. Today, Russia’s internal security ministry, FSB, provided a video of the detainees, while describing their plans to assassinate Vladimir Solovyov, well-known host of “Solovyov Live” political discussions; Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik and RT; Dmitry Kiselyev, television presenter and Rossiya Segodnya media group head (which owns Sputnik and RIA Novosti); Simonyan’s husband, TV presenter Tigran Keosayan; and TV hosts Olga Skabeeva and Evgeny Popov. They also claimed that they had received instructions from the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU). The FSB said that searches of the detainees’ homes turned up an improvised explosive device, eight Molotov cocktails, six pistols, a sawed-off hunting rifle, an RGD-5 grenade and over a thousand rounds of ammunition of various calibers — along with narcotics, fake Ukrainian passports, and variety of far-right literature and paraphernalia.
The NSWP was officially designed a terrorist organization by the Russian Supreme Court in May 2021, with its activities banned throughout the country. Members have been convicted of violent assaults and murders against ethnic groups from 2009 onwards. The leader, Andrei Kolesnikov, is presently serving a 16-year sentence for killing a migrant from Uzbekistan in 2013.
President Vladimir Putin highlighted the neo-Nazi problem in a high-profile meeting with the Prosecutor General’s office this morning: “This morning, the organs of the Federal Security Service [FSB] prevented an attempt by a terrorist group to kill a well-known Russian journalist. Of course they will deny this now, but the facts and the evidence are irrefutable.... And here it should be noted that we know the names of the curators from Western services, primarily of course, from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who work with Ukrainian security agencies, and who, apparently, give such advice.” They have turned to “a policy of terror — to preparations to kill our journalists…. They care only about their own rights — someone from their imperial ambitions, someone else [out of habit] from colonial times. But this won’t work in Russia.” (http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68274)
