Detained suspects plotted ‘Paris-style’ attacks in Russia

Moscow /AFP

Suspects detained by Russian authorities were plotting simultaneous “Paris-style” attacks on Moscow and Saint Petersburg, local media reported on Sunday, the first anniversary of the massacre in the French capital.
The FSB security service, the KGB’s successor, announced on Saturday it had detained 10 citizens of Central Asian states who planned “high-profile acts of sabotage and terror” in the two Russian cities. Saint Petersburg’s Fontanka.ru news site reported on Sunday that the seven people taken into custody in the city were suspected of planning attacks on two large shopping centres, citing official sources.
Government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported , citing security service sources, that the detainees “were planning terror attacks according to the Paris scenario” referring to IS group attacks a year ago that killed 130 people. France was holding sombre commemorations Sunday for the victims of the November 13, 2015 assaults by gunmen and suicide bombers on night spots, the Bataclan concert hall and outside the national stadium. “Several explosive devices were supposed to trigger simultaneously in busy places. At the same time in different parts of the cities some of the terrorists… were going to open fire with machine guns on crowds,” the paper reported, referring to the Russian plot. Rossiiskaya Gazeta called the attackers “a professional terrorist group.”