Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday that four Russian teenagers have been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of planning a “terrorist” attack.
The FSB said the youths, all Russian citizens, born between 2007 and 2008, were planning to detonate a bomb in a crowded area in the Urals city, located about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) east of Moscow .
Authorities said they seized components of an explosive device and that investigators in the Sverdlovsk region had opened a criminal case.
Officials: 1 suspect followed ‘neo-Nazi’ channel
According to the FSB, the unnamed detainees “shared the ideas of a terrorist organization banned in Russia and planned to commit a terrorist act using a homemade explosive device.”
The two suspects are also accused of being involved in an arson attack on a Russian Interior Ministry vehicle on December 22.
A video published by Russia’s TASS state news agency reportedly shows a suspect confessing to setting fire to a police car after subscribing to “neo-Nazi channels on Telegram.”
The suspect said he “reads the same channels [that] It is necessary to act against the police.”
Russian domestic security has deteriorated in recent years as the state devotes resources to arresting people suspected of collaborating with Ukraine.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been hit by a wave of arson incidents which it blames on Kiev.
There have also been several deadly attacks by suspected Islamist groups, including a mass shooting at a Moscow concert hall in March 2024, during which 145 people were killed and more than 500 were injured.
mf/sms (Reuters, AFP)
