Two men recruited by Kiev planned an attack on Metropolitan Tikhon in Moscow, the agency has said
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate a senior figure in the Russian Orthodox Church in Crimea, an agency statement has claimed.
The Ukrainian military intelligence plot allegedly involved threatening an aide of Crimean Metropolitan Tikhon, the head of the Simferopol and Crimean diocese and reported to be a spiritual adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement on Friday, the FSB said it had arrested a Russian and Ukrainian citizen respectively, who confessed to being recruited in mid-2024 and receiving the explosive device in December 2024 through a dead drop.
They allegedly planned to carry out an attack at Metropolitan Tikhon’s residential quarters in Sretensky Monastery, one of Moscow’s most historically and religiously significant Orthodox sites, after which they would flee Russia using forged documents provided by Ukrainian intelligence.
The agency also reported that it seized a homemade explosive device and two fake Ukrainian passports from the detainees.
Several Russian outlets also released a video of the Ukrainian suspect, who identified himself as Denis Popovich, saying that had been working as an aide to Tikhon while secretly gathering intelligence on him.
He claimed he was tasked by Kiev with recruiting a co-conspirator for an assassination, adding that he was told that his family would be killed if he refused to cooperate.
Tikhon has been described as a close spiritual adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has never confirmed this, insisting that it is up to the Russian leader to reveal who provides him with spiritual guidance. The cleric’s 2011 book ‘Everyday Saints and Other Stories’ is a bestseller in Russia, with over 2 million copies sold.
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