Shock over attempted murder of female journalists in Russia

Russia’s intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), has announced that the assassination attempt on Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-run international television channel RT, has been prevented.

According to the FSB statement, the assassination attempt on Simonyan and another leading journalist, Ksenia Sobchak, was planned by Ukrainian intelligence. The attackers, identified as “neo-Nazis”, were recorded to have been captured yesterday in Moscow and the Ryazan region during reconnaissance.

The people who planned the attack were reportedly detained with the support of the Ministry of the Interior while they were collecting information about the homes and workplaces of two female journalists. The FSB stated that a large number of Kalashnikovs, knives and ammunition were seized during the raids.

According to the statement, flags with Nazi symbols were also found in the homes of the suspects. It was alleged that the detainees admitted that they had received the assassination order from Ukraine.

Simonyan, one of Russia’s leading journalists, is one of the names supporting the occupation of Ukraine and has been editor-in-chief of RT television since its inception in 2005.

Journalists such as Darya Dugina, daughter of famed political scientist Alexander Dugin, and military blogger Maksim Fomin, had been assassinated in Russia since the start of the Ukrainian war.