Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a man it believes was planning to blow up the local government building in the city of Rubtsovsk in Russia’s Siberian Altai region on orders from Ukraine, it announced on Wednesday.
The man, a Russian national who has been placed in a pre-trial detention facility, has been charged with attempting to carry out a terror attack and with the illegal storage of explosives.
The FSB alleged that the detainee, who it said was born in 1988, had become “part of a terrorist organisation” while abroad, after which he had gone to the Altai region “on his handler’s orders”.
His home was raided by law enforcement officers who found items required to make an explosive device, including a home-made explosive with a 1.5 kg TNT equivalent, according to the FSB.
Russia’s domestic security service regularly detains people on suspicion of preparing to carry out an act of sabotage or pass on military information to Ukrainian intelligence, usually charging them with espionage, treason, or preparations for a terror attack.