Russia’s leading security body, the Federal Security Service or FSB, announced on Monday that it had dismantled what it described as a “terrorist cell” in the country’s south. This cell is accused of supplying arms and money to the individuals who carried out the deadly assault on a Moscow concert venue.
On Sunday, the FSB took into custody four individuals suspected of belonging to this cell in Dagestan, located in the North Caucasus region.
The agency claims these detainees were instrumental in funneling financial support and providing weaponry to the attackers who targeted the concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow on March 22, resulting in 144 deaths. This incident marks the most lethal attack on Russian territory in the past twenty years.
According to the FSB, “The militants apprehended were directly involved in funding the March 22 terror act at Crocus City Hall in Moscow and supplying the perpetrators with means of terrorism.”
The statement from the FSB mentioned that one of the individuals arrested in Dagestan admitted to personally delivering weapons to those who executed the Moscow attack.
Additionally, a video released by the FSB features one suspect disclosing plans for another attack in Kaspiysk, a city within Dagestan, though it’s uncertain if this confession came from the same individual.
The FSB noted that the apprehended suspects are foreign nationals but did not disclose their countries of origin. It was previously revealed that the individuals arrested shortly after the attack on the March 22 concert in Moscow were from Tajikistan, a Central Asian country.
This recent operation in Dagestan resulted in the arrest of these four suspects, adding to the earlier arrest of the four alleged gunmen and seven others accused of participating in the attack.
An Islamic State group affiliate has claimed responsibility for the Moscow assault. President Vladimir Putin referred to the attackers as “radical Islamists” and suggested, without providing proof, that Ukraine and Western countries were implicated in the incident, despite strong denials from Kyiv.
