Kiev tried to assassinate number of Russian journalists, FSB says
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Ukraine has tried to make attempts on the lives on numerous Russian journalists, including a top RT journalist, Moscow revealed.
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Flowers and a poster with a photo of blogger Vladlen Tatarsky placed near the site of an explosion at the "Street Bar" cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 3, 2023 (AP)
The Russian security forces have prevented an assassination attempt planned by Kiev on the editor-in-chief of the RT broadcaster and Rossiya Segodnya media group, as well as a prominent Russian journalist, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Saturday.
According to the FSB, the journalists that Kiev tried to assassinate are Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak, respectively.
"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, together with the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, prevented the preparation of the assassination of Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the RT channel and the international information agency Rossiya Segodnya, by the Ukrainian special services," the FSB said in a statement.
Citing intelligence obtained by the agency, the FSB said that "The assassination of Ksenia Sobchak was also being prepared."
Members of Paragraph-88, a neo-Nazi group, conducted reconnaissance near Simonyan's and Sobchak's workplaces and residences before they were detained in Moscow and the Ryazan Region on Friday, the FSB said.
The head of the Russian Union of Journalists, Vladimir Solovyov, told Sputnik it could be a second wave of assassination attempts against Russian journalists.
"It's dangerous to be a journalist these days. It is always more dangerous for our valiant military correspondents who work on the front line, but now it is dangerous at home," Solovyov said.
"We know that attempts were being prepared last year on both [TV presenter] Ksenia Sobchak and Margarita Simonyan, as it turns out today, [attempts were being prepared] again, the second wave," he added.
Commenting on the ordeal, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Simonyan and Sobchak were targeted because of their professional activities, stressing that Ukraine's actions were yet another attempted terrorist attack against Russian citizens.
"We are talking about yet another attempted terrorist attack on Russian civilians organized by the Kiev regime, which is being carefully guarded by Western curators," Zakharova said in a statement.
"The law enforcement agencies are currently working out all the details, but it is already clear that the reason for the failed assassination attempt was the professional activity of Russian journalists," she added.
According to the spokesperson, Simonyan regularly receives threats and has been put on various hit lists, with the recent attempt being yet another one taken by the Ukrainian security services and prevented by Russian law enforcement.
"Everything that is happening once again shows the terrorist nature of Volodymyr Zelensky's regime, responsible for a series of terrorist attacks," Zakharova underlined.
No one should expect a reaction from the relevant international structures, she stressed, citing pathological hypocrisy, which she said has long become a political tradition of the West.
This comes after it was revealed that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) added Bulgarian Journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva to the list of targets for elimination on the "Myrotvorets" [peacemaker] website.
The journalist's information was added to the SBU's database on April 15th. Her name, photos, data, place of birth, social profiles, and media publications were all included.
Some of the people on the list were killed and marked with "eliminated" on the website. Earlier last August, one of the journalists on the list, Daria Dugina, was murdered in a bomb blast outside Moscow in her car. In response, Russia accused a Ukrainian security service agent as the perpetrator.
Military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky, whose name is also on the list, was killed in an explosion in a cafe in St. Petersburg. The girl who delivered the bomb said that she was fulfilling a job by Ukrainian officials and was promised that if she completed it successfully, she would be hired by a Ukrainian media outlet.
After Tatarsky's death, the word "eliminated" appeared on the "Peacemaker" website.
The list covers hundreds of journalists, politicians, and public figures from all over the world. Among them are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard, NBC News American journalist Keir Simmons, Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters, and hundreds of others.
"Myrotvorets" or "Peacemaker" is a Ukrainian website that gives SBU employees and foreign services access to a database that includes information about individuals that Ukraine considers enemies. The list became known as the black kill list, because people on the list were killed, with a sign indicating their "elimination", posted on the Peacekeeper website after their murder.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on Ukraine to investigate the site. Peacekeeper continues to operate despite repeated calls from the UN, G7 ambassadors, the EU, and human rights groups to shut it down.
Even though it has no official status, it acts as a supplement to the government's databases of Ukraine's checkpoints. On that note, In 2018, the German Foreign Ministry asked the Ukrainian government to delete the website.
