“The Federal Security Service jointly with the Investigative Committee and the Interior Ministry of Russia has foiled the assassination of Editor-in-Chief of RT TV Channel and Russia Today international news agency Margarita Simonyan plotted by Ukrainian special services. According to available data, the murder of Ksenia Sobchak was also plotted,” the press office said in a statement.

On July 14, the FSB detained members of the Neo-Nazi Paragraph-88 group in Moscow and the Ryazan Region who were keeping track of their targets at their places of work and residence, the press office said.

“During investigative measures, they confirmed their plotting of the assassination attempt on an assignment from the Ukrainian Security Service for a reward of 1.5 million rubles for each murder,” the statement reads.

During the investigative measures, FSB operatives seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle, 90 rounds for it, knives, knuckle-dusters, rubber clubs, handcuffs, chevrons with Nazi insignia, Nazi literature, and also communications means and computers with information confirming their criminal intent, the FSB press office said.

“The Investigative Committee plans to institute criminal cases against the detained suspects on extremist and terrorist counts,” the FSB said.

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