The Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had opened a criminal case against Ksenia Maksimova, a Russian citizen living in the United Kingdom, accusing her of participating in a "terrorist organization" under Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Russian Criminal Code. State agencies distributed the announcement alongside a video address by an FSB officer whose face was not shown and whose voice was altered.

According to the security service, Maksimova organized the collection of money, "equipment and other assistance" for Ukraine. The Russian Democratic Society UK, which she founded in London, is accused of serving as a platform "for speeches by persons harboring plans for the violent seizure of power and the change of the constitutional order in Russia."

The FSB listed representatives of the Anti-War Committee of Russia and the Anti-Corruption Foundation among such persons. In 2024, Maksimova became the Anti-War Committee's consul in the United Kingdom.

In the video, the FSB officer said the British were "intensifying efforts to consolidate the so-called Russian opposition abroad" and called Russians who left the country and sympathize with Kyiv "so-called Vlasovites 2.0." According to him, London "seeks to create for the outside world the illusion that some alternative center of power is maturing within the Russian emigration, ready to replace the authorities in Moscow."

The FSB statement said counterintelligence is working to "neutralize terrorist activity initiated by London using Russian relocants."

At the end of the video, the officer says that "the persons who have decided to link their fate with London and who wish Russia defeat are known to counterintelligence by name," adding: "We see their every step, their fates are predetermined. We will not allow Khrushchev-style mistakes with an amnesty for Banderites."

The Moscow Times noted that shortly before the address, the Kremlin recalled Russia's ambassador to Britain, Andrei Kelin, without appointing a successor. According to the publication's columnist, Sergei Konyashin, a former representative of the Russian embassy in Sudan, Moscow is preparing for escalation toward London in the foreseeable future.

The FSB and Vladimir Putin have previously used the terms "Vlasovites" and "Banderites" in reference to Russians fighting on the side of Ukraine. In March 2024, Putin spoke of "Vlasovites" after a raid by the Russian Volunteer Corps in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, called the participants "traitors" and asked the FSB to "identify them by name." At the time, he said they would be punished "without a statute of limitations, wherever they may be." Putin also called the former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London, and the former GRU officer Sergei Skripal, convicted of espionage, "traitors."

Last October, a report on the program "Vesti Nedeli" on Rossiya 1 called members of the Anti-War Committee "collaborationists" and mentioned that during the war "the Nazis nurtured Banderites and Vlasovites."