Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Friday that it had stopped a bombing before it happened. The target, it said, was a railway in Crimea, and the man behind the plot was a Russian citizen in his mid-40s.
The FSB said he had been “collecting information on the deployment of Russian defence ministry facilities and units.” When agents searched a hiding place he kept, they found an improvised explosive device made with foreign-made plastic explosives. The service said he was working on the “instructions of Ukrainian military intelligence” and that he is now in custody on remand.
TASS, the Russian news agency, named his home as the Crimean city of Sevastopol. Its website carried video of a man in a black T-shirt and jeans being led from a police van. In another clip, his face blurred, he told of being recruited by Ukrainian military intelligence. None of this has been independently verified.
What officials said
Sergei Aksyonov, the governor Moscow installed in Crimea, said transport infrastructure had become a main target for “terrorism.” He promised that Ukrainian saboteurs would be punished. “An unenviable fate awaits the Ukrainian agents. They will be found and punished,” he said.
He added that a Ukrainian drone had been shot down over the north of the peninsula. That was all he said about it.
The wider picture
Russia took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian drone raids and sabotage have targeted it since, as Kyiv tries to retake it.
The FSB’s statement covered the suspect’s age, nationality and the device. It did not say exactly when he was detained.
Sources
- Russia detains man accused of plotting rail bombing in Crimea
- Russia Detains Man Accused of Plotting Crimea Bombing – The Moscow Times
Sources
- Russia detains man accused of plotting rail bombing in Crimea
- Russia Detains Man Accused of Plotting Crimea Bombing
