On Saturday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the arrest of a Russian citizen who allegedly planned to carry out terrorist attacks against a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Defense and a military blogger. The FSB did not disclose the identities of the intended targets.
According to the investigation, the arrested individual communicated with a Ukrainian military intelligence officer on the Telegram messenger, who allegedly instructed him to retrieve an improvised explosive device from a hiding place in the Moscow area. The device, disguised as a portable music speaker, contained approximately 1.5 kilograms of TNT. The suspect then conducted reconnaissance at the residences of the intended targets to enable remote detonations.
In a video statement by the FSB, the man claimed he was supposed to place the explosive device under the blogger’s car or at the entrance of his home, but was unable to do so due to illness. He had stored the explosives at his home and was also offered a second mission, which was to target a high-ranking military official’s car and place a bomb on it.
Earlier in the week, the FSB had foiled a series of terrorist attacks against top military officials of the Ministry of Defense and their families. According to the authorities, all the suspects were acting on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services. On October 17, Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s special forces, was killed in a blast outside his Moscow home, along with his aide Ilia Polikarpov. The suspect in this case, a citizen of Uzbekistan, admitted to acting on Ukraine’s orders.