The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has reportedly foiled an attempted assassination of Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch and founder of Tsargrad, Orthodox conservative propaganda media outlet supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, Interfax reports citing the FSB press centre.
According to the security service, head of the Russian Volunteer Corps Denis Kapustin was behind the attempted assassination as ordered by the Ukrainian Security Service.
“An improvised explosive device attached underneath Malofeev’s car was meant to explode to carry out this planned act of terrorism,” the statement reads.
The service opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism, joining a terrorist organisation, and illegal possession of explosive substances.
The FSB also accused the Russian Volunteer Corps of being involved in the “terrorist act that saw an improvised explosive device” used at a oil and gas facility in Russia’s Volgograd region in August 2022.
On 15 August, the FSB reported that two men had been “neutralised” after they resisted arrest. The service now claimed that they were Kapustin’s accomplices from Russia despite accusing a different organisation in the past.
On 2 March, the Bryansk region governor said that a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group had stormed into the village of Lyubechane located on the Russia-Ukraine border. According to TASS, the group attacked two villages, Lyubechane and Sushany. Two civilians were killed in the attack. Meanwhile, two more were injured, including a child born in 2012.
The Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit made up of Russian nationals fighting for Ukraine, claimed responsibility for the incursion. Its neo-Nazi founder Denis Kapustin said that the attack had been plotted in cooperation with Kyiv.
