- Putin says the West is trying to destroy Russia from within
- Western-backed assassins tried to kill a journalist, he says
- Ukraine denies trying to kill a Russian journalist
- Putin orders prosecutors to take quick action against fake news
LONDON, April 25 – President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused the West of trying to destroy Russia, urging prosecutors to use what he called conspiracies hatched by foreign spies to divide the country and to discredit its armed forces to take a hard line.
Speaking to Russia’s top prosecutors and under the scrutiny of his defense minister, Putin accused the West of inciting Ukraine to plot attacks on Russian journalists – a claim Kyiv denied.
Putin said the KGB’s main Soviet-era successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB), prevented an attempted assassination of Russian TV journalist Vladimir Soloviev by a “terrorist group” on Monday.
“They turned to terror – in preparation for killing our journalists,” Putin said of the West.
Putin, a former KGB spy who has ruled Russia as supreme leader since the last day of 1999, did not immediately provide evidence to support his statements, and Reuters was unable to immediately verify the allegations.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said a group of six neo-nationalist Russian citizens, at the behest of Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU), plotted to kill Soloviev – one of Russia’s most high-profile TV and radio journalists.
The SBU dismissed the allegations, which it said were fantasies made up by Moscow. “The SBU has no plans to assassinate V. Solovyev,” a statement read.
Solovyev, a host of talk shows whose guests often denigrate Ukraine and justify Moscow’s actions there, thanked the FSB.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Easter Orthodox service at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, Russia April 23, 2022. Picture taken April 23, 2022. Sputnik/Sergei Fadeichev/Pool via REUTERS
Putin said the West realized that Ukraine could not beat Russia in the war, so it moved on to another plan – destroying Russia itself.
“Another task has come to the fore: to divide Russian society and destroy Russia from within,” Putin said. “It doesn’t work.”
Putin said foreign media organizations and social media have been used by Western spies to stage provocations against Russian forces.
Prosecutors should respond quickly to fake news and reports that undermine order, Putin said, without giving specific examples.
“They are often organized mainly from abroad, organized in different ways – either the information comes from there or the money comes from there,” Putin said. Prosecutors should “fight extremism more actively,” Putin said.
Just days after Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, he signed into law a prison sentence of up to 15 years for willfully spreading “fake” news about the military.
Russia says the Western media has provided an overly biased narrative of the war in Ukraine that largely ignores Moscow’s concerns about NATO expansion and the persecution of Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine killed thousands, displaced millions more and raised fears of a major confrontation between Russia and the United States — by far the world’s largest nuclear powers.
Putin says the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the United States is using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Ukraine is guilty of genocide against Russian speakers.
Ukraine says it is fighting a land grab by Russia and that Putin’s accusations of genocide are nonsense.
Reuters reporting; Adaptation by Guy Faulconbridge and Alex Richardson