BISHKEK (TCA) — Two immigrants from Central Asia, who were related to recruiters of international terrorists and who expressed readiness to commit terrorist acts in Russia, have been killed in Russia’s Vladimir region, east of Moscow, during a detention attempt, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on April 19, Sputnik news agency reported.
“Officers of Russia’s FSB, as a result of a clash during an attempted detention, neutralized two citizens of one of the countries of the Central Asian region, born in 1991 and 1987, who were in the Vladimir region. They offered active armed resistance,” the FSB statement said.
“They were in contact with recruiters of international terrorist organizations, showed interest in improvised explosive devices making technology and expressed their readiness to commit terrorist acts on the territory of Russia,” it said.
The FSB said components for making a bomb, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a handgun and ammunition were seized from the suspected terrorists.
Sputnik also reported that FSB has detained Akram Azimov, older brother of suspected organizer of St. Petersburg terrorist attack Abror Azimov.
The FSB said on April 19 that Akram Azimov “helped to transfer money for the preparation of the terrorist attack and assisted in establishing communication channels with the emissaries of international terrorist organizations.”
Russian security services have detained nine persons in connection with the St. Petersburg subway train bombing that killed 15 people and injured 45 on April 3, RFE/RL reported.
The FSB earlier said that 27-year-old Abror Azimov, born in Kyrgyzstan’s Jalal-Abad region, was detained on April 17 in the Moscow region’s Odintsovo district “in the framework of the criminal case” over the St. Petersburg suicide attack.
The FSB statement said Azimov allegedly had “trained the suicide attacker.”
Akbarjon Jalilov, a 22-year-old Kyrgyz-born ethnic Uzbek man with Russian citizenship, has been identified by Russian authorities as the suicide bomber.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the St. Petersburg attack.
