MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a member of the Artpodgotovka terrorist organization banned in the country who was gathering information on defense enterprises for Ukrainian intelligence services while posing as an employee of a transport company, the FSB press office reported.
TASS has compiled the key information known at the moment.
Detention
- The FSB, in cooperation with the Russian Investigative Committee, detained a Russian citizen born in 1975 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, who is a member of the Artpodgotovka terrorist organization banned in Russia, the FSB press office reported.
- The FSB said that he was gathering intelligence on enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex on behalf of Ukrainian security services.
- According to the FSB, posing as an employee of a logistics and transport company, he conducted reconnaissance of strategically important facilities in seven Russian regions and sent information via Telegram to the handlers of the terrorist organization with the aim of undermining the country’s national security.
- The suspect also sent the exact coordinates of explosives storage facilities, an FSB operative reported.
Investigation
- The Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Russian Criminal Code (Participation in the Activities of an Organization Recognized as Terrorist under Russian Law).
- The penalty under this article provides for punishment of up to life imprisonment, the FSB press office noted.
- During the investigation, the 50-year-old suspect confessed to conducting reconnaissance of Russian military facilities on behalf of the Artpodgotovka terrorist organization and its leader Vyacheslav Maltsev (designated a foreign agent), the FSB noted.
- The FSB recalled that Maltsev is wanted internationally for organizing a terrorist group and planning terrorist attacks in Russia.
- Since 2018, he has been living in France and cooperating with local and Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB press office added.
- Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko recalled that the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee had earlier investigated and sent to court a criminal case against eight members of this banned organization, including Russian Railways employees Yury Martyanov and Alexey Demchenko.
- Under Maltsev’s leadership, they formed a terrorist group and, between April and June 2024, plotted a terrorist attack in the Orenburg Region, targeting a train carrying military goods.
- The FSB and the Russian Interior Ministry thwarted this terrorist attack.
Confession
- Information, gathered by the member of the Artpodgotovka terrorist organization detained in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, was passed through group leader Vyacheslav Maltsev to the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and other Ukrainian security services, the suspect said in a video released by the FSB.
- The man also stated that he never received any reward.
Artpodgotovka case
- The FSB noted that between 2020 and 2022, it repeatedly informed the French General Directorate for Internal Security of the terrorist activities of Artpodgotovka leader Vyacheslav Maltsev and his supporters, but France has refused to extradite the criminal to Russia.
- The FSB recalled that the Artpodgotovka terrorist organization was established in 2013 to prepare an armed uprising and seize power in Russia.
- When the special military operation began, the organization’s leaders and members, unable to carry out their criminal plans in Russia, moved to France and sided with Ukrainian terrorists, the press office noted.
Suppression of terrorist organization members’ activities
- Since 2022, Russian law enforcement agencies have suppressed the activities of 251 members of the Artpodgotovka terrorist organization banned in Russia, the FSB press office reported.
- Over the past few years, a number of Artpodgotovka members have been convicted.