FSB Thwarts Car Bomb Attack on Russian Media Regulator Leadership Planned by Ukrainian Intelligence

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has reported a foiled terrorist attack on the leadership of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), plotted by Ukrainian special services. Supporters of neo-fascist ideology recruited by Kiev were preparing to blow up a car of the officials, seven suspects were detained, and the alleged group leader was killed after offering armed resistance, the FSB’s Center for Public Relations said. TASS has compiled the key information available so far.

Thwarted terrorist attack

On April 18, 2026, a terrorist attack against Roskomnadzor leadership was thwarted. The plot involved a plan to blow up their car with an explosive device.

Seven supporters of far-right neo-Nazi ideas, recruited by Ukrainian intelligence agencies via the Telegram messenger, have been detained in Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk and Yaroslavl for plotting the attack, the FSB said.

A video released by the FSB showed the suspects being detained at their homes.

The group’s leader, a Moscow resident born in 2004, offered armed resistance to law enforcement officers and was killed by return fire, the FSB added.

The administrator of the group chat where the assassination attempt on Roskomnadzor’s deputy head was being prepared was among those detained.

Improvised explosive devices, an F-1 grenade, a silenced Makarov pistol, two gas pistols, walkie-talkies, neo-Nazi and Ukrainian paramilitary paraphernalia, and a manual on how to join a Ukrainian terrorist organization outlawed in Russia were seized from the suspects during searches.

The detainees were also members of chats where arson attacks and killings were being planned.

Criminal cases were opened over illegal trafficking of arms and explosive devices, and charges related to the preparation of a terrorist attack are also being considered.

Threats against Roskomnadzor staff

The FSB said Ukrainian intelligence services were seeking to disrupt Roskomnadzor measures aimed at protecting the information space, including blocking Telegram, which it said is widely used by the enemy for sabotage, terrorism, extremism, cyber fraud and other serious crimes.

Roskomnadzor employees and their relatives receive threats and become victims of attacks and extremist actions by young people acting under the influence of Ukrainian intelligence services because of their work on internet security, the FSB added.

According to the FSB, such crimes are carried out by Russian citizens, including minors, coordinated from abroad.

Use of internet by Ukrainian intelligence services to promote destructive ideas

Ukrainian intelligence services use popular foreign messengers and some internet resources to involve Russian citizens, especially young people, in illegal activities and promote subcultures encouraging suicide, violence, hatred, fraud and extortion, the FSB reported.

The agency recalled that in 2018, 20 people were killed and 67 injured in the Kerch Polytechnic College attack, coordinated by a Ukrainian handler.

Since then, 20 attacks on Russian educational institutions have been carried out, killing 57 people and injuring 203, according to the FSB.

Another 306 armed attacks were prevented at the planning stage.

The FSB added that administrators of internet chats spreading ideas of violence and mass killings are often also moderators of so-called swatting communities used for mass false terrorist threat reports and for spreading destructive ideas among Russian youth.