Russia’s FSB security service said Monday it had thwarted an attempt to assassinate a controversial tycoon, blaming a Russian-founded sabotage group that last week penetrated the country’s borders from Ukraine.
“The Federal Security Service has thwarted an attempt on the life of a public figure — chairman of the board of directors of the Tsargrad group of companies Konstantin Malofeev,” the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
Malofeyev is a Kremlin-linked businessman who had been indicted by the United States for sanctions violations.
Washington said last month that his seized assets would be diverted to “support the people of Ukraine”.
The FSB said the assassination attempt had been orchestrated by Denis Kapustin, the alleged founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps, which claimed to have breached Russia’s borders in the southern Bryansk region last week.
The statement said Kapustin was born in 1984, lives in Ukraine, takes orders from Kyiv’s security services and fights against Russian troops.
“The act of terrorism was planned to be carried out by detonating a home-made explosive device attached under Malofeev’s car,” it added.
The FSB said the attempt on the tycoon’s life resembled that of the killing last August of Darya Dugina, the daughter of far-right thinker and Kremlin supporter, Alexander Dugin.
