Russian security service thwarts alleged Kiev-orchestrated terror plot

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has thwarted a terrorist plot in the central region of Tambov, the agency reported on Monday.

FSB officers detained a Russian citizen in the regional capital, Tambov. The man allegedly planned to carry out an attack on orders from “the Ukrainian special services,” the agency said.

According to the FSB, while patrolling the area near the Tambov railway station, Russian Railways employees noticed a suspicious man placing unknown objects in construction waste. He was detained by railroad security and handed over to the FSB. A subsequent inspection of an abandoned building nearby revealed two homemade explosive devices, which were neutralized by explosives specialists.

During interrogation, which the FSB has made public, the man reported that in mid-2023, he began visiting websites of terrorist organizations – the Ukraine-based Russian Volunteer Corps and Russian Freedom Legion. He then started communicating with a representative of the Ukrainian special services, who allegedly persuaded him to commit acts of terrorism in Russia. In early March this year, he was given the task of blowing up the Tambov Regional Court and Tambov Arbitration Court, and was allegedly preparing the attacks at the time of his arrest.

A criminal investigation was launched into the case on charges of ‘promotion of terrorist activity’ and ‘preparation for a crime’. The suspect faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Late last month, the FSB said it foiled another attempted terrorist attack in the western region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine. Officers detained a Russian citizen allegedly “professing Ukrainian nationalist ideology” who was preparing an explosion in a public place on orders from “representatives of a terrorist organization” whose name was not made public.

The news comes a little over a month after a major terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow, which claimed over 140 lives. Four gunmen, who stormed the arena shooting indiscriminately and then set the building on fire, were detained hours later near the border with Ukraine. Russian officials described the perpetrators as radical Islamists who may have been used as proxies by Ukraine’s security services. Investigators claimed that a money trail linked the suspects with radical Ukrainian nationalists. An investigation into the attack is ongoing.