Clerics Denis Popovich, 27, and Nikita Ivankovich, 28, have been held by the Russian FSB security service and face life in prison if found guilty of terrorism charges
Russian FSB ‘thwarts Ukrainian bid to assassinate Putin’s personal confessor’
Two priests have been accused of plotting to assassinate a Russian bishop known to be Vladimir Putin ’s personal Orthodox confessor.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) held clerics Denis Popovich, 27, and Nikita Ivankovich, 28, amid claims Ukraine ’s GUR military intelligence had plotted the bombing of the Metropolitan of Crimea, Tikhon Shevkunov, 66. Popovich, a Ukrainian citizen, is secretary to Tikhon, who is the senior Russian Orthodox figure in Putin-occupied Crimea.
Popovich was detained on January 13 on his way to the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow but the alleged plot was only revealed today. The arrested clerics are both accused of sending money to the Ukrainian armed forces since 2022.
Ivankovich, a Russian citizen, said he was recruited in mid-2024 by the GUR. He said in an FSB video: “My task was the physical destruction of the Metropolitan of Crimea. The attack was planned through the detonation of an improvised explosive device.”
Popovich allegedly gained access to Tikhon’s Telegram account, as he monitored the metropolitan’s correspondence and received information about his trips. He appeared to confess to the murder plot in an FSB video saying he was “recruited by the GUR [military intelligence] to follow the movements of Metropolitan Tikhon.”
He said: “The task was set to find an ally and liquidate Metropolitan Tikhon by means of explosives. It was to be planted in the living quarters of Metropolitan Tikhon at the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow.
“Once executed, we were to leave the Russian Federation on forged passports.”
He added he was “threatened with reprisals and the killing of my relatives” unless he agreed to carry out the plot.
They collected explosives and Ukrainian passports from a stash in a forest, it was alleged. The two priests face terrorism charges which could see them jailed for life.
Earlier in the war, Tikhon appeared to reproach Putin over the war, calling it “an unprecedented tragedy, a fateful stage in the life of our people, our country, and Ukraine. Only God Almighty can resolve it all, I have no doubt about it.”