The Kremlin arrests two clergymen suspected of plotting the assassination of Vladimir Putin’s “confessor”

According to the FSB, it would be a coup orchestrated by a Ukrainian intelligence agency.

The target, a 66-year-old priest named Tikhon Shevkunov, has been described by Russian media for several years as Vladimir Putin’s “confessor.” According to them, he has maintained a public relationship with Putin since the late 1990s.

In 2023, Shevkunov was appointed Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

Andriy Yusov, a member of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, denied that Kyiv was behind such a plot and called these accusations “false.” “We fight by the rules — the rules of war and international norms,” he stated.

For its part, the Kremlin condemned the alleged plot: «It is clear that the Kyiv regime does not shrink from anything. In this case, nothing is sacred. This has been confirmed once again,» stated Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin.

The FSB reports that this attack was to be carried out by a Russian cleric and a Ukrainian cleric. Nikita Ivankovich is a Russian cleric from a church in Moscow, while Denis Popovich is a Ukrainian who works as an assistant to Tikhon Shevkunov. They were arrested in Moscow.

These two men are said to have been recruited for the crime in 2024 via Telegram messaging, according to the FSB.

Authorities have released videos of the two men hesitantly admitting to the plot. Reuters reports that the circumstances under which these confessions were obtained are unclear.

Popovich stated that he was recruited to track Shevkunov’s movements and to find an accomplice to eliminate the metropolitan. He claimed he was threatened with death against his relatives if he did not cooperate.

Ivankovich revealed that Ukrainian intelligence services gave a homemade bomb to him and his accomplice. The two men were supposed to place it in the apartment of Tikhon Shevkunov in Moscow.

A video from the FSB shows investigators recovering a box as well as two fake passports from a hideout in the woods.