The Daily Telegraph

Signature unclear: how ‘plot to kill pro-putin TV host’ went awry

- By Nataliya Vasilyeva RUSSIA CORRESPOND­ENT

A RAID on an alleged Western plot to kill a pro-putin journalist in Russia appeared to have been exposed as mere propaganda last night after video on state television showed a clumsy attempt to frame the supposed attackers.

Vladimir Putin has become embroiled in a “fake news” row after he announced an FSB operation had thwarted a plan by neo-nazis backed by the West to kill one of Russia’s most popular pro-kremlin television hosts, because the West “faced an informatio­n fiasco in Russia”.

The FSB promptly released footage, broadcast on state television, purporting to show the operation to arrest six Russian members of a fascist group who had been recruited by Ukraine’s intelligen­ce agency to kill Vladimir Solovyov as well as other television personalit­ies.

The seven-minute video raised suspicions that the apparently foiled plot may have been a Russian intelligen­ce hoax. Initial footage showed FSB officers breaking down the doors of the alleged plotters and violently detaining them.

Footage from inside the flat depicted a plethora of swastikas and Nazi-connected memorabili­a. A passportsi­zed photo of Adolf Hitler was seen standing on a desk next to an automatic rifle in the corner of the room.

A handwritte­n note on a book of far-right literature caught on camera said in Russian: “To Timokha, thank you for your support! Kill to live! Live to kill!” It was signed off “Signature unclear”, an apparent instructio­n carried out too literally.

The video also showed, among a cache of weapons and grenades, three boxes of The Sims, a popular video game, another apparent blunder, with the suspicion being that the games were placed there when the instructio­n was more likely to have been to place SIM cards for phones, which would have helped to frame the plot.

Russia watchers who have uncovered previous gaffes of the Russian security agencies were quick to dismiss the video as a bungled FSB operation to invent a plot to kill the television presenter.

“I genuinely believe this is a dumb FSB officer being told to get 3 SIMS,” Eliot Higgins, head of the online investigat­ive outlet Bellingcat, tweeted yesterday in reference to the three video games pictured in the FSB video.

Ukraine’s security agency SBU said it had no plans to target the television host.

 ?? ?? A “Ukrainian neo-nazi starter pack” featured in the video (courtesy of the FSB)
A “Ukrainian neo-nazi starter pack” featured in the video (courtesy of the FSB)

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