MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a local resident in the Altai Region, in Western Siberia, who reportedly plotted to organize acts of violence and terror against migrants on the orders of a Ukrainian nationalist organization, a spokesman for the FSB Public Liaisons Center told TASS on Friday.
"A local resident who is a Russian citizen and was born in 2000, was detained in Barnaul for plotting overt actions of intimidation against the local population, including natives of the Central Asian region, and against places of mass gathering of Muslims, as well as against government bodies, on the instructions of a so-called handler of the Ukrainian nationalist organization dubbed the Ethnic National Association," the spokesman said.
According to the spokesman, FSB officers quashed the activities of the Ethnic National Association, a group tasked with coordinating the actions of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian nationalists geared towards intimidating non-Slavic peoples, and are pressing criminal charges of training for terrorist activities (article 205.3 of the Russian Criminal Code). The organization is active on Instagram, VKontakte, and Telegram.
A search of the defendant’s place of residence uncovered explosive substances, manuals on making explosive devices, extremist literature, and means of communication containing photo reconnaissance data on potential targets of criminal acts that were sent to the Ukrainian handler. "The man has pleaded guilty to the crime that he is being charged with. According to his testimony, he initiated contacts with a representative of the Ethnic National Association in February 2021 over his dissatisfaction with the government’s immigration policy. In early March, he received an assignment to select facilities to stage attacks against and to send photo reports. Later, he was given an assignment to commit arson or carry out other acts of intimidation," the spokesman said.