A Turkish citizen was detained Tuesday in the Volgograd region on suspicion of having planned and financed acts of terrorism.
A statement on the regional police website said the suspect — described as "especially dangerous" — was detained while en route to Rostov-on-Don, and that he had been on an international wanted list since December 2013.
Police only discovered that he was a wanted man by chance, during a standard inspection of his documents at a road checkpoint. The Federal Security Service, Interpol and Russian police have all been cooperating in their efforts to track down and detain him.
Though the Volgograd police press service said that the suspect belongs to a banned opposition party back home, it stopped short of providing specific details of the terrorist group the suspect allegedly belongs to, saying it was not within their jurisdiction to provide such information about a Turkish citizen.
Regional news website V102.ru reported that the suspect belongs to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front. The group has been implicated in a number of assassinations and suicide bombings, and is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.
It remains unclear whether the suspect was believed to have been involved in the commission or planning of any acts of terrorism on Russian soil.
Volgograd is still reeling from the twin suicide bombings that hit the city over the last New Year's holidays, destroying the main train station and a trolleybus, and claiming dozens of lives.
Svetlana Smolyaninova, head of the regional police department's press service, said the suspect had told investigators he was enrolled at a university in Rostov-on-Don.
Currently, police are working to have the suspect extradited to Turkey.
See also:
Moscow Police Arrest Suspected Head of Uzbek Islamist Terrorist Group
