Moscow, February 28, 2025
fedpress.ru
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) prevented a terrorist plot against His Eminence Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Simferopol and Crimea last month. Metropolitan Tikhon is also the author of the modern Russian religious classic, Несвятые святые (
Everyday Saints and Other StoriesArchimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). Everyday Saints and Other Stories. Translation by Julian Henry Lowenfeld. Pokrov Publications, 2012. $23. 504 pages, illustrated. ISBN 978-0-9842848-3-2, 978-0-9842848-4-9.
“>Everyday Saints in English).
According to the FSB, the attack was planned by the Ukrainian Special Services, for which they recruited a Ukrainian and a Russian citizen, both of whom are graduates of the Sretensky Theological Seminary in Moscow, where the attack was intended to take place.
During the investigation, FSB officers seized a homemade explosive device and two counterfeit Ukrainian passports with photographs of the detainees and altered personal data, which were to be used to flee Russia after the attack, reports the FSB.
The seized items can be seen in a video published on RIA-Novosti:
The suspects, Denis Popovich, 27 (a Ukrainian citizen, from Kiev), and Nikita Ivankovich, 28 (Russian citizen), confessed that they were recruited by an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in mid-2024 to help plot the murder of Met. Tikhon.
In December, an IED was delivered to them through a dead drop, intended to be used while Met. Tikhon was at Sretensky Monastery in Moscow. His Eminence is the rebuilder and former abbot of the monastery and often visits it. The planned explosion would likely have killed or injured anyone located in the Metropolitan’s vicinity.
Both Popovich and Ivankovich are graduates of the Sretensky Seminary and know the territory well. Further, Popovich was, until being detained, Met. Tikhon’s longtime assistant and subdeacon. He was initially recruited by Ukrainian authorities and was tasked with recruiting a partner, which turned out to be Ivankovich, who was serving as a reader in a Moscow church.
In planning the attack, Popovich was able to take control of Met. Tikhon’s Telegram account and receive information about his trips.
According to Ivankovich, the initial assassination attempt was thwarted when Popovich was detained on January 13. Another attempt was planned for late this month, though Ivankovich was also detained in mid-February.
In his confession video, Popovich says that the Ukrainian Special Services threatened to kill his family if he didn’t agree to blow up the Metropolitan with an explosive device. Popovich’s father is an archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and lives with the rest of his family in Kiev.
The Russian FSB also found 73 Ukrainian contacts on Denis Popovich’s telephone, including those of a border guard of the Ukrainian military, and a woman who worked in the Ukrainian Army press service.
A criminal case has been initiated against the two detainees under the article of the Russian Federation’s criminal code on preparation of a terrorist act and illegal trafficking of explosive devices by an organized group. If indicted, the two young men may face up to 20 years of prison.
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