The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Friday that a group of Russian neo-Nazis, guided by Ukraine, had been foiled while conspiring to conduct a bomb attack against the leadership of Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor.
A series of raids conducted last Saturday in Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk, and Yaroslavl targeted seven members of the network. During operations in Moscow, a man in his early 20s identified as the ringleader was killed after opening fire on officers attempting to apprehend him.
Footage released by the FSB showed that at least two suspects are women, with all members being young adults. In interviews, they stated they were gathering and sharing personal information about Roskomnadzor head Andrey Lipov and his deputies, discussing methods to attack their vehicles. Officers also seized neo-Nazi imagery, including hand-drawn swastikas and an Imperial Russian flag modified with a white supremacist pattern. A collection of weapons was recovered, comprising a silenced handgun used by the ringleader during the firefight that led to his death, a hand grenade, and a one-kilogram homemade bomb.
The FSB alleged the network targeted Roskomnadzor officials due to the agency’s role in restricting foreign-based applications, particularly Telegram. The policy, which Russia claims is necessary for national security, has sparked controversy within the country where Telegram remains highly popular.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who relocated from Russia to the United Arab Emirates, is a vocal advocate of maximum free speech and has faced legal challenges with multiple governments over the years, including France, where he was charged in cases involving alleged criminal communications on the platform.
The FSB maintains that foreign messaging services failing to cooperate with Russian investigations are de facto tools of Ukrainian special services, used to radicalize youth and recruit individuals susceptible to coercion for crimes such as targeted assassinations.
