MOSCOW: A Moscow court on Saturday issued criminal charges against seven people “motivated by national hatred” to kill two prominent Russian journalists in a Ukrainian-backed plot, Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said.
The court approved the detention until Sept. 14, under criminal charges of “hooliganism,” of five minors born in 2005 and 2006 and two men it said were part of an organized group, TASS said.
TASS said Russia’s FSB security service detained an unspecified number of people on Friday who carried out reconnaissance near the homes and workplaces of journalists Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which in the past has denied involvement in assassinations of pro-war figures inside Russia.
Interfax news agency quoted the FSB as saying that the detainees had admitted preparing attacks on the two women on behalf of Ukraine and had been promised a reward of 1.5 million roubles ($16,620) for each one.
Simonyan, head of state media outlet RT and a vocal supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, posted a message on Telegram about the alleged plot, urging the security services to “Keep on working, brothers!“
Sobchak is a well known journalist and TV host who also ran as a presidential candidate in 2018.
Two prominent pro-war Russian figures, journalist Darya Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, have been killed in bomb attacks inside Russia in the past year. Russia blamed their killings on Ukraine, while Kyiv denied that and portrayed them as evidence of Russian infighting.
In May a prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver. Investigators said a suspect had been detained and had admitted acting on behalf of Ukraine.
Russia arrests 7 who aimed to kill two top journalists -TASS
https://arab.news/9q7zw
Russia arrests 7 who aimed to kill two top journalists -TASS
- The court approved the detention until Sept. 14, under criminal charges of "hooliganism"
- There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which in the past has denied involvement in assassinations of pro-war figures inside Russia
Gabon cuts off Facebook, TikTok after protests
Libreville, Gabon: Facebook and TikTok were no longer available in Gabon on Wednesday, AFP journalists said, after regulators said they were suspending social media over national security concerns amid anti-government protests.
Gabon’s media regulator on Tuesday announced the suspension of social media platforms until further notice, saying that online posts were stoking conflict.
The High Authority for Communication imposed “the immediate suspension of social media platforms in Gabon,” its spokesman Jean-Claude Mendome said in a televised statement.
He said “inappropriate, defamatory, hateful, and insulting content” was undermining “human dignity, public morality, the honor of citizens, social cohesion, the stability of the Republic’s institutions, and national security.”
The communications body spokesman also cited the “spread of false information,” “cyberbullying” and “unauthorized disclosure of personal data” as reasons for the decision.
“These actions are likely, in the case of Gabon, to generate social conflict, destabilize the institutions of the Republic, and seriously jeopardize national unity, democratic progress, and achievements,” he added.
The regulator did not specify any social media platforms that would be included in the ban.
But it said “freedom of expression, including freedom of comment and criticism,” remained “a fundamental right enshrined in Gabon.”
‘Climate of fear’
Less than a year after being elected, Gabonese President Brice Oligui Nguema has faced his first wave of social unrest, with teachers on strike and other civil servants threatening to do the same.
School teachers began striking over pay and conditions in December and protests over similar demands have since spread to other public sectors — health, higher education and broadcasting.
Opposition leader Alain-Claude Billie-By-Nze said the social media crackdown imposed “a climate of fear and repression” in the central African state.
In an overnight post on Facebook, he called on civil groups “and all Gabonese people dedicated to freedom to mobilize and block this liberty-destroying excess.”
The last action by teachers took place in 2022 under then president Ali Bongo, whose family ruled the small central African country for 55 years.
Oligui overthrew Bongo in a military coup a few months later and acted on some of the teachers’ concerns, buying calm during the two-year transition period that led up to the presidential election in April 2025.
He won that election with a huge majority, generating high expectations with promises that he would turn the country around and improve living standards.
A wage freeze decided a decade ago by the Bongo government has left teachers struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.
Authorities last month arrested two prominent figures from the teachers’ protest movement, leaving teachers and parents afraid to discuss the strike in public.
