On April 25, Russia announced that its intelligence service, the FSB, had prevented the attempted assassination of pro-government TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov by a Russian neo-Nazi group, sponsored by the Ukrainian authorities. A video of the arrest filmed by the FSB was broadcast in stride by the Russian media. Social networks quickly derided these images, suggesting that it would be a clumsy staging. To find out more, the editorial staff of the Observers asked specialists of the Russian far right to decipher these images. On April 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the FSB had foiled a plot by the neo-Nazi group NS/WP (“National Socialism/White Power”) to assassinate star pro-Kremlin journalist Vladimir Solovyov, and sponsored by the SBU , the Ukrainian intelligence service. Shortly after, Russian state television broadcast a video of more than seven minutes purporting to show the arrest. Images that would have been transmitted to them by the FSB. The Russian intelligence service also announced on its website that it had arrested members of the neo-Nazi group and seized equipment and weapons, stating that the members of this group had confessed. In total, six people were reportedly arrested. In these images, FSB agents are seen breaking into an apartment, arresting several men occupying it, then searching the place and seizing various objects. Some of the men arrested have tattoos with neo-Nazi symbols (at 5’57”). Towards the end of the video, at 5’21”, a series of photos are played, including that of a T-Shirt with a swastika, guns and a neopagan eco-fascist manifesto written by Aleksey Dobrovolsky, a neo-Nazi ideologue. Pistols (1’23), a photo of Adolf Hitler (5’50), Nazi symbols (4’08) and what appear to be sachets containing drugs (5’40”) are also filmed. Extract from Ria Novosti’s video showing a necklace with a swastika engraved on the stone (at 4’08) © Observers Extract from Ria Novosti’s video showing a bag of drugs found in the accommodation at 5’40 © Observers Extract from Ria Novosti’s video showing a neopagan manifesto written by a neo-Nazi ideologue found in the accommodation at 5’40 © Observers On Twitter, users quickly question these images and speak of staging. For them, the number of Nazi symbols “found” in the accommodation, and the incongruity of certain objects seized, such as “Sims 3″ video games, cast doubt on the veracity of these images. Excerpt from Ria Novosti’s video showing “Sims 3” video games found in the accommodation at 5’31 © Observers Russia and Ukraine.”There are frankly absurd things […] like the green wig, the three copies of the Sims video game.” Michael Colborne, journalist and researcher at Bellingcat, is a specialist in far-right movements in Ukraine: “I think this is a real group, or a few real individuals, but not a real conspiracy I saw a lot of material, from clothes to books to photos and propaganda, from far-right and neo-Nazi groups from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, even Central and Eastern Europe. Everything in the photos published in this video seems fake, too superficial, as if trying to invent evidence of a neo-Nazi group. In my opinion, it can be assumed that this is probably a “false flag-operation” [une opération militaire dans laquelle des éléments sont utilisés pour faire accuser un autre camp], and a particularly incompetent operation. “The video shows a T-shirt [à 4’10] of a neo-Nazi group based in Ukraine and led by Russians (called moloth, or m8l8th), the leader is an Azov veteran, originally from Russia. It is a T-shirt that is not difficult to buy online. Excerpt from Ria Novosti’s video showing a T-shirt with the inscriptions “M8L8TH’, found in the accommodation at 4’10 © Observers There is a crease in the middle of the T-shirt [rouge] and it looks very new….There are a few things that make me think it’s very odd, to put it mildly. There are frankly absurd things […] like the green wig, the three copies of the Sims video game, for example”. Extract from the 5’33 video relayed by the Russian media, showing the objects seized by the FSB during the arrest © Observers A “reconstructed” arrest ?For Adrien Nonjon, a researcher at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), a specialist in Ukraine, the far right and Ukrainian nationalism, the arrest looks like a reconstruction: “Everything is clean in this arrest. The way to enter the apartment is not natural, the person opens them without looking through the peephole [car il ouvre immédiatement après que le FSB frappe à la porte, à 0’08, NDLR]. The FSB forces are coming in quite slowly, although they are supposed to be dangerous, armed people. Hence this idea of reconstitution. In Russia, even before the war, neo-Nazism was punishable. To arrest members of these groups and give them an expedited judgment, we brandish the terrorist threat, and we add incriminating objects to the crime scene, like elements of these ultranationalist circles”. Extract from the video published by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti showing what appears to be FSB members knocking on the door of the home.© Observers Adrien Nonjon also observes that the FSB filmed what appears to be drugs found at the scene.Yet the neo-Nazi group quoted by the FSB is known to campaign against the use of drugs. “The T-shirt has a fairly straight edge style [un sous-genre musical du punk hardcore dont les adhérents ne consomment pas de drogue]. Finally the green book on the bed [à5’31] is a neopagan eco-fascist manifesto by a priest who condemned drug use. Funny clothes and readings for someone on hard drugs. This is all the more bizarre since it would be Russian members of the NS/WP whose program is anti-drugs”. The “straight edge” T-shirt which appears in the video published by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti on 25 April © Observers The NS/WP is a Russian neo-Nazi group, created in 2009 and considered one of the most violent neo-Nazi gangs in the country.In 2014, the group was convicted of ten murders.Contacted by the editorial staff of the Observers of France 24, the Telegram channel of the Russian neo-Nazi group NS/WP did not wish to comment on this arrest but confirmed that those arrested are part of the group. Beware of these elements which “prove” that the video is a falseCertain elements of the video, which are also surprising, do not, however, allow us to conclude that it is an edited video. Internet users and online investigators have pointed out the strange fact that “Sims 3” video games were placed with the incriminating objects shown by the FSB. Other Internet users have I didn’t notice on the video that a book, whose cover is not visible on the images, bears the mention “illegible signature”. They saw the error of a member of the FSB, who would have applied an instruction in a literal way, and who would have written in full “illegible signature” instead of signing with an unintelligible line. Russian FSB has fabricated a “plot” to kill Russian TV propagandist Solovyov. Allegedly by Ukrainian SBU and Nazis. One of the “evidences” is neonazi inscription on a book. Signed by “Signature unclear”. Yes, FSB got an order to sign it with a “signature unclear” – and did so! pic.twitter.com/P1vnDOXOIB— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) April 25, 2022 Aric Toler, researcher at Bellingcat, denies this hypothesis. Indeed, if you search on Google for “illegible signature”, you can see that this is a standard way for the neo-Nazi group NS/WP to sign its publications on social networks. Ukrainian intelligence, denied having ordered such an operation. In an April 25 statement, the intelligence service said it “does not intend to assassinate V. Solovyov” and “does not intend to comment seriously on the new fantasies of the intelligence services Russians, who invent operations for a Russian public”.