Putin: Russia Knows Names of CIA Curators Advising Ukrainian Neo-Nazis to Carry Out Crimes

"This morning, the organs of the Federal Security Service [FSB] prevented an attempt by a terrorist group to kill a well-known Russian journalist. Of course, they will deny this now, but the facts and the evidence are irrefutable," Putin said at a briefing with officials from the Prosecutor's Office on Monday, Sputnik reported.

"Since they are failing to achieve their goals in the [Russian] information space - bamboozling their own citizens, of course, by using their monopolistic position in the information space in their own countries and some other states, but failing here, in Russia, they have switched to a policy of terror - to preparations to kill our journalists. And here it should be noted that we know the names of the curators from Western services, primarily of course, from the US Central Intelligence Agency, who work with Ukrainian security agencies, and who, apparently, give such advice," Putin added.

"Here is their attitude toward the rights of journalists, to the dissimination of information, their attitude to human rights in general. They care only about their own rights -someone from their imperial ambitions, someone else [out of habit] from their colonial times. But this won't work in Russia," he assured.

Putin asked investigators to gather details on such crimes, identify their organizers and perpetrators, and gather the necessary evidence to engage in court proceedings, including in international courts.

"I want to emphasize that such a base of evidence should be gathered for all the crimes of the neo-Nazis and their accomplices, starting with the 2014 coup in Kiev, which paved the way for civil war, bloodshed and violence in Ukraine," he stated.

Putin also demanded decisive measures to be taken to stop provocations against the Russian military by foreign media, and said creating division in Russian society and trying to break the country up from the inside were among the West's main priorities. So far, these efforts have failed, he added.

Putin also commented on economic and business matters, asking state organs to allow those foreign companies which have stayed in Russia despite facing pressures to leave to operate in peace, and ordering them to protect businesses in general from "excessive control" by the state.

Earlier in the day on Monday, the FSB announced that they had arrested members of 'National Socialism/White Power', an international neo-Nazi group, which planned to assassinate Vladimir Solovyev, a well-known local television and radio journalist and Putin ally. Multiple members of the group, all of them Russian nationals, were said to have been planning Solovyev's murder on the instructions of the Security Service of Ukraine. The detained members of the group have already "given confessions" on their plans, and planned to flee abroad afterwards, the FSB announced.

After carrying out searches of the detainees' homes, investigators found an improvised explosive device, eight Molotov Cocktails, six pistols, a sawed off hunting rifle, an RGD-5 grenade and over a thousand rounds of ammunition of various calibers, narcotics, fake Ukrainian passports, and variety of far-right literature and paraphernalia.

Evidence in the case continues to be collected. 'National Socialism/White Power' was deemed a terrorist organization by the Russian Supreme Court in May 2021, and its activities were banned in the country.