Russia’s FSB security service on Monday announced the arrest of an alleged six-man Ukrainian-directed “Nazi Assassin” squad supposedly plotting to murder Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.
Included among the “evidence” proudly displayed by the FSB in a video shared to Russian news outlet RIA Novosti was a collection of American video games called Sims 3, prompting much hilarity online from skeptics who suggested the games were accidentally included by bumbling Russian agents.
The FSB and other Russian agencies frantically scrambled to delete the original video of the arrest and replace it with an edited version that blurred out the video games, but to no avail, as a few original copies were left online.
For instance, the Armenian branch of Russia’s state-run Sputnik news service apparently did not get the memo and was still hosting the original version of the video and accompanying FSB press release as of Tuesday afternoon. The Sims video games are clearly visible in the video.
The original video, posted to the encrypted messaging platform Telegram by RIA Novosti and embedded in the Sputnik Armenia web page, shows the collection of weapons and Nazi paraphernalia the police claimed to seize from the alleged death squad. Sitting on a bed right next to a bright red swastika T-shirt was a set of Sims 3 games and expansions:
Hilarity ensued as international observers theorized the FSB agents were instructed to include 3 SIM data cards among the “evidence” arranged for the video, but instead they misunderstood their instructions and bought Sims 3 video games:
Other bemused skeptics noted the presence of a book they claimed was inscribed “Kill to live and live to kill,” but “signed” with the words “Signature Unclear.”
Perhaps stung by these sarcastic reactions, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation quickly produced an edited version of the arrest video that omitted the book signed “Signature Unclear” and digitally blurred the video game covers:
The edited version is now embedded in the FSB’s official statement on the arrest, which claimed the “terrorists” were also hoarding “components necessary for the manufacture of an improvised explosive device,” a collection of “weapons and ammunition,” some “narcotic substances,” and “fake passports of citizens of Ukraine with falsified personal data.”
Solovyov accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of ordering his death on Monday, supposedly because Zelensky fears his strongly pro-Moscow brand of “journalism.”
“They all see me as a thorn in the eye. I am a Jew and an anti-fascist, so it is obvious that I am a target for the Bandera, the Nazi bastards,” he said.
Bandera is a reference to long-dead Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, seen as a hero by many in Ukraine but a traitor in Russia. Bandera and his brutal Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) did indeed collaborate with Nazi Germany during World War II. His apologists claim this alliance was necessary to stave off Soviet conquest, an argument most historians find unpersuasive given the thousands of atrocities OUN committed.
Bandera’s family has lately been working to rehabilitate his image, dismissing some of the worst charges against him as “Russian propaganda.” Many Russians share Solovyov’s attitude that enduring appreciation for Bandera as a nationalist hero is proof Ukraine is controlled by Nazi sympathizers. It would seem difficult to paint Volodymyr Zelensky in such terms, as he is Ukraine’s first Jewish chief executive.
Solovyov admitted he noticed no signs of any hostile actors stalking him, but said that only proved “how professionally and clearly our competent authorities worked.”
Solovyov made unwelcome headlines in early April when he introduced a video clip on his television show, with great fanfare, that was supposed to depict Ukrainian soldiers abusing captured Russian forces – but his production staff accidentally rolled a clip of defiant Ukrainians calling Russia their “bitch” and telling the Russian invaders to go home. Solovyov suffered a spectacular meltdown on the air, howling orders and insults at his staff, but they were never able to find the clip he wanted.
The grumpy host was forced to settle for using the balance of that episode to promote a wild Russian conspiracy theory that American and British forces staged the horrifying massacre of Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha, which widespread evidence implicates Russia in. According to Solovyov, the Americans and British chose that location for their alleged false-flag hoax because they thought the name of the town sounded like “butcher.”
Ukraine’s SBU state security service on Monday said it has “no plans to assassinate V. Solovyov.”
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