The Federal Security Service (FSB), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee mounted a joint operation to thwart preparations by the Ukrainian special services to assassinate Rossiya Segodnya editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, the FSB announced Saturday, according to Sputnik.
The Rossiya Segodnya media group is the parent of Sputnik and RT.
"In the course of the investigation, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, 90 magazine cartridges, knives, brass knuckles, rubber truncheons, handcuffs, chevrons and flags containing Nazi symbols, Nazi literature as well as communications equipment and computers with information confirming their criminal intentions were confiscated from the detainees," the FSB said.
Along with Simonyan, the would-be assassins planned to target Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian journalist, liberal socialite, opposition figure and former presidential candidate.
The suspects, detained in raids in Moscow and Ryazan region, are said to be affiliated with a neo-Nazi group which calls itself 'Paragraph-88'.
The suspects, who conducted field reconnaissance at Simonyan and Sobchak's residences and places of work, confessed that they were instructed by figures affiliated with the Ukrainian military to carry out the assassination in exchange for a reward of 1.5 million rubles (about $17,000 US) per murder.
This is the second time in a year that the Sputnik and RT chief has been targeted. In April 2022, the FSB detained members of a neo-Nazi terror cell affiliated with the 'National Socialism/White Power' movement plotting to kill about half a dozen Russian media and television personalities.
MNA/ PR