Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that it had thwarted planned attacks on Jewish religious sites in the Krasnoyarsk and Stavropol regions.
Two men from Central Asia were arrested in Krasnoyarsk on suspicion of plotting to detonate a homemade bomb at a local synagogue, the FSB said. A Russian citizen was arrested in the city of Pyatigorsk for allegedly planning to set fire to a Jewish community building using Molotov cocktails.
FSB video shared by state news agencies showed the arrests, what appeared to be explosives and other materials, and the recorded confessions of the arrested individuals.
The security agency claimed all three people were linked to a banned international terrorist organization. The FSB said it pressed terrorism charges.
The FSB claimed the attacks were organized “under the pretext of protecting the interests of Palestinians who suffered during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” but were in fact aimed at inciting interethnic strife inside Russia.
It said the plots were “similar” to the Oct. 30, 2023, riots in the republic of Dagestan, where hundreds of people stormed the Makhachkala airport following online rumors of an arriving flight from Israel.
Residents of Dagestan, an ethnically diverse Muslim-majority region on the Caspian Sea, have been vocal in their support for Palestine since Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023.
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