President Putin Accuses The West Of Preparing To Kill Russian Journalist, Destroying Russia From Within

JAKARTA - President Vladimir Putin accused the West of seeking to destroy Russia, demanding prosecutors take a hard line with what he presented as a plot devised by foreign spies to divide the country and discredit its armed forces, on Monday.

Speaking to Russia's top prosecutor and witnessed by his defense minister, President Putin accused the West of inciting attacks on Russian journalists.

He said the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, the Federal Security Service (FSB), on Monday prevented an assassination attempt by a "terrorist group" of a high-profile Russian TV journalist later referred to by state media as Vladimir Solovyev.

"They have turned to terror, to prepare for the murder of our journalists," President Putin said of the West.

Solovyev is one of Russia's most famous TV and radio journalists. He is an outspoken talk show host, his guests often demeaning Ukraine and justifying Moscow's actions there.

President Putin, a former KGB spy who has ruled Russia as a supreme leader since the last day of 1999, did not immediately provide evidence to support his assertion, with Reuters unable to immediately verify the allegations.

Solovyev could not immediately be reached for comment.

President Putin said the West had realized Ukraine could not beat Russia in a war, so it had moved to a different plan, the destruction of Russia itself.

"Another task has emerged: to divide Russian society and destroy Russia from within. This is not working," said President Putin.

President Putin further said that foreign media organizations and social media have been used by Western spies to carry out provocations against the Russian armed forces.

Prosecutors must react quickly to false news and reports that undermine order, President Putin said, without giving specific examples.

"They are often organized from abroad, organized in different ways, whether the information comes from there or the money. Prosecutors must fight extremism "more actively," he stressed.

Just days after ordering the invasion of Ukraine, President Putin signed a law that carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years for deliberately spreading "fake" news about the military.

Russia says Western media have provided an exaggerated partial narrative about the war in Ukraine, largely ignoring Moscow's concerns about NATO's expansion and what it says is the persecution of Russian-speakers in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine, which denies discrimination against Russian speakers, did not immediately respond to Putin's remarks.

RIA state news agency said members of a far-right neo-nationalist group known as "National Socialism/White Power" had plotted to assassinate Solovyev on Ukraine's orders.

Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, displaced millions, and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States, by far the world's two largest nuclear powers.

President Putin said special military operations in Ukraine were necessary, because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia. And, Ukraine is guilty of genocide against Russian-speaking people.

Ukraine says it is fighting Russia's land grabs, calling President Putin's claims of genocide nonsense.