FSB Foils Terrorist Attack Plot in Pyatigorsk, Detains Central Asian Suspect

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) thwarted a planned terrorist attack near the prosecutor's office in the southern city of Pyatigorsk and detained a Central Asian-born suspect, the press office said.

"The FSB foiled a terrorist attack in Stavropol Region that had been planned by a 2001-born citizen of a Central Asian country and a follower of an international terrorist organization banned in Russia," it said.

According to the FSB, the suspect, acting on instructions and under the coordination of an operative of the terrorist organization based in Syria, planned to remotely detonate an explosive device near the prosecutor's office in Pyatigorsk. He monitored the area and obtained components needed to assemble the explosive device. After carrying out the attack, he planned to travel to Syria and join the terrorist organization.

A search of the suspect's residence uncovered and seized components, chemicals, and shrapnel intended for assembling an improvised explosive device.

The Investigative Department of the FSB Directorate for Stavropol Region has initiated a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 30 and Part 2 of Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (preparation for a terrorist attack).

The FSB highlighted that, under the note to Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code, a person involved in preparing a terrorist attack is exempt from criminal liability if they help prevent its execution by timely notifying the authorities or by other means, provided their actions do not constitute another criminal offense. "Under Article 31 of the Russian Criminal Code, a person is not subject to criminal liability if they voluntarily and completely abandon the commission of the crime before it is completed," the press office said.