Seven people have been arrested after targeting an executive of a defense firm, investigators have said
The Russian authorities have taken into custody seven people, including three minors, who were allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate the executive manager of a defense firm based in Moscow Region, officials reported on Wednesday.
All seven are Russian nationals who were recruited for the job over the past two months through messenger apps, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the masterminds were working for Ukrainian special services.
The suspects previously assisted Kiev with illegally operating sim boxes – communication devices running several dozen sim cards each, which are used for scam operations and other activities – the FSB claimed. They also allegedly helped their patrons launder the proceeds from their criminal gains.
The attempted murder started with the surveillance of the target’s car, which was done by the three teens, and proceeded all the way to assembling an improvised explosive device (IED) and planting it under the vehicle, officials said. The bomb would have detonated if law enforcement had not foiled the plot, the Investigative Committee said.
Footage released along with the statements shows both the IED and the sim boxes which officers discovered after catching the alleged organizers, who were reportedly based in Sverdlovsk and Perm regions.
The committee claimed that the accomplices were offered at least 1 million rubles ($10,000) each. But in the video, the person who allegedly planted the bomb said he was promised half that much and was never paid.
Russian officials did not identify the suspects by name and did not say who the target of the plot was, only stating that that person oversees a leading military design and construction bureau in Moscow Region.
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Last week, General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces, and his assistant were killed in a bomb plot, which investigators believe was masterminded by Ukrainian intelligence. A suspect was identified and taken into custody.
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