Moscow Court Issues Criminal Charges in Plot to Kill Russian Journalists
July 15 – A Moscow court has approved criminal charges against seven individuals accused of planning the assassination of two prominent Russian journalists, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency. The court ordered the detention of five minors and two adults until September 14, on charges of “hooliganism” motivated by national hatred.
The individuals involved were allegedly part of an organized group and were said to have been acting on a Ukrainian-backed plot. The FSB security service, Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency, detained an unspecified number of people on Friday who had conducted surveillance near the homes and workplaces of the journalists targeted – Margarita Simonyan, the head of state media outlet RT, and Ksenia Sobchak, who ran against President Vladimir Putin in 2018.
The detainees, according to the Interfax news agency, have confessed to planning the attacks on behalf of Ukraine and were promised a reward of 1.5 million roubles ($16,620) for each journalist killed.
The incident has sparked a heated response from both sides. Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Russia of living in an “absurd constructed mythology.” In an interview, Podolyak downplayed the significance of the journalists, stating that they did not play a significant role in the ongoing conflict or Russia’s global standing.
Margarita Simonyan, a vocal supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, responded to the alleged plot by urging the security services to “keep on working.” Ksenia Sobchak, whose father Anatoly Sobchak was Putin’s political mentor, thanked the involved services for their work, assuming the assassination plans were true.
However, Sobchak also expressed skepticism, stating that if the reports were meant to link her and Simonyan in an unfounded manner, it was merely an act of “usual nastiness.” She emphasized that any form of terrorism is reprehensible.
In recent years, several bomb attacks within Russia have claimed the lives of pro-war figures, including journalist Darya Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Russia attributed these killings to Ukraine, while Kyiv denied any involvement, instead portraying them as evidence of infighting within Russia.
Just last May, Zakhar Prilepin, a prominent Russian nationalist writer, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver. The investigation revealed that a suspect had been detained, who confessed to acting on behalf of Ukraine.
The case continues to raise tensions between Russia and Ukraine, adding to the already strained relations between the two countries.
Reporting by Reuters; Editing by David Holmes, Christina Fincher, and Diane Craft