- A video purporting to show Russian agents foiling an assassination plot has been mocked by social media users.
- The video of a sting operation showed copies of “The Sims” video game laid out on a bed.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier alleged that journalist Vladimir Solovyov was the plot’s target.
Eagle-eyed social media users have mocked Russia’s spy agency — the Federal Security Service (FSB) — after spotting clues indicating that FSB agents may have staged their foiling of an assassination plot on a Kremlin propagandist.
A video released over Telegram on Monday by Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency showed what appeared to be a sting operation.
Captioned “Full video of the FSB with the moment of detention and the testimony of neo-Nazis who planned assassination attempts on Russian journalists,” the video shows an individual being forcibly pinned down and detained by Russian agents in an apartment.
The video then shows the items the agents said they found in the apartment, including a stack of Ukrainian passports, a green wig, shirts with Nazi swastikas on them, and a photo of Adolf Hitler. Also found were what appeared to be drugs, pistols, and other weapons.
The video also showed a stack of supposed evidence of Nazi-linked activity, namely three copies of the popular “Sims 3” video game. Laid out on a bed were the expansion packs for the game titled “The Sims 3: Master Suite Stuff,” “The Sims 3: Outdoor Living Stuff,” and “The Sims 3: Seasons.”
The sighting of the games led some journalists to speculate there may have been some confusion between the “Sims” game and SIM cards, which are used in cellphones.
Francis Scarr, a senior digital journalist with BBC Monitoring, jokingly called the games part of the “Ukrainian neo-Nazi starter pack,” writing: “Who knew they were so into The Sims 3?”
—Francis Scarr (@francska1) April 25, 2022
Eliot Higgins, a staff member at investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat, tweeted: “I genuinely believe this is a dumb FSB officer being told to get 3 SIMs.”
—Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) April 25, 2022
Meanwhile, political scientist Sergej Sumlenny highlighted how another still from the video showed a note bearing the Russian phrase “signature unclear,” rather than an actual signature.
“Yes, FSB got an order to sign it with a “signature unclear” — and did so!” Sumlenny wrote in his tweet.
—Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) April 25, 2022
An alternative version of the video, which showed the Sims games blurred out, was later released on the FSB’s official YouTube channel.
According to The Kyiv Independent, the FSB has insisted that those arrested during the operation are part of the National Socialism/White Power group, a neo-Nazi organization that was supposedly plotting to kill journalist Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent state media figure.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin made similar accusations, per VOA News, saying that the West was plotting to kill journalists.
“They have resorted to terror! To preparing the murders of our journalists. We know by name the curators of Western secret services, primarily, of course, from the CIA, who work with the security agencies of Ukraine,” Putin said, per the outlet.
“Apparently they give such advice [to kill journalists]. So much for their attitude towards the rights of journalists … [and] human rights in general,” he said, according to VOA News.
EA Games, the makers of “The Sims 3” and its latest iteration, “The Sims 4,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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