Russian Security Service Reports Foiling of Terrorist Attack Plans in Moscow

The Federal Security Service of Russia has stated that it shot and killed an individual who intended to carry out "terrorist attacks" in Moscow. According to an FSB statement released on Monday, March 4, the suspect planned to attack the Moscow Metro and a Jewish religious institution. The statement indicates that agents intended to arrest the suspect, but he was killed during a confrontation with security forces and an exchange of gunfire. The FSB's statement did not disclose the identity of the deceased but mentioned that he intended to join a terrorist group in Afghanistan after carrying out his attacks. In recent years, attacks have occurred in Moscow and other parts of Russia, which Russian security officials have classified as "terrorist attacks." The death toll from armed attacks in Dagestan, Russia, has reached 20, including an incident on June 24, where armed individuals attacked two Orthodox churches, two synagogues, and a police station in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala in the autonomous Republic of Dagestan, resulting in 20 fatalities. Security officials in this republic and the Federal Security Service of Russia have attributed this attack to ISIS. Prior to this attack, on Friday, March 23 of the same year, in one of the bloodiest attacks in recent years in Russia, four armed assailants attacked the "Krokus" concert hall near Moscow, killing 145 people, including several children, and injuring dozens. Russian security forces identified the attackers and planners of this assault as members of ISIS, primarily from Tajikistan. Approximately three weeks later, on Thursday, April 13, the FSB announced the foiling of a planned attack on a synagogue in Moscow. The FSB statement identified the assailant as a 22-year-old foreign national from Central Asian countries who "had a criminal record in his home country and had been imprisoned due to radical beliefs and contacts with individuals convicted for participating in terrorist activities and supporting the ideologies of international terrorist organizations." On June 17, Russian security forces killed several suspects of "terrorist crimes" who had taken two prison guards hostage in a detention facility in southern Russia. The television network "Russia Today" reported on the same day that the hostage-takers were accused of links to the Islamist terrorist group ISIS.