Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday that it arrested three people accused of trying to kill a defense industry executive with a car bomb in the city of St. Petersburg.
The three people, all Russian citizens, allegedly acted under the direction of a handler from what the FSB called a “Ukrainian terrorist organization” overseen by Kyiv’s military intelligence.
“Two of the detainees conducted surveillance of the target, carried out reconnaissance at his residence and passed the explosive device to the perpetrator from a cache set up in one of St. Petersburg’s cemeteries,” the law enforcement agency said.
Neither the defense executive nor the company he works for was identified in the FSB statement.
A video released by the FSB showed one of the alleged bomb plotters, a man, walking the streets of St. Petersburg dressed as an elderly woman, which the agency said was an attempt to evade detection.
It claimed the man was arrested after planting a bomb under the defense executive’s car. Two young women were also shown in the video, describing how they tracked the executive’s movements.
In the video, all three said they had “voluntarily joined a Ukrainian terrorist organization” last summer. The highly formal language of their confessions suggested they may have been scripted.
It was not possible to verify the FSB’s claims or whether the three people who were arrested spoke under duress.
The law enforcement agency said the suspected bomb plotters face charges of terrorism, treason and illegal possession of explosives.
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