Eye Spy - May 2018

44 EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018

ussia’s Federal Security

Service (FSB) revealed

details of several counter-

terrorism raids against

FSB Launches Series of Counter-

terrorism Raids to Thwart ISIS

FIFA WORLD CUP 2018

R
ISIS cells who plotted attacks in
Stavropol and Derbent as well as
Rostov and St Petersburg - two
cities hosting the 2018 FIFA World
Cup football tournament. The pre-
emptive strikes took place
following the interception of
communications between cell
members and a primary contact in
the Middle East.

In Stavropol, 21 April, counter-

terrorism officers killed an ISIS

terrorist who plotted an attack on

the local FSB headquarters and an

administrative building. The man,

who has not been named, was in

possession of a sawed-off 16-

gauge shotgun, IED components,

an Islamic State flag and a written

pledge of allegiance to the terror

group. Also of interest, layout

plans of the FSB HQ and govern-

ment building were recovered. The

suspect was killed when he

resisted arrest.

On the same day, in the town of

Derbent, Dagestan, which lies

immediately east of Chechnya,

nine terrorists were killed and one

Special Forces officer slightly

wounded during a CT operation.

The group was allegedly planning

an attack on 1 May to coincide

with a traditional holiday in

Russia, according to a statement

from the country’s National Anti-

Te rror Committee. “Nine outlaws

have been neutralised following

brief exchanges of fire with law

enforcement,” a committee official

said.

Several days earlier in the Rostov

Region, just 290 miles from

Volgograd where England will play

their first qualifying game against

Tunisia on 18 June, three ISIS-

linked terrorists, who plotted gun

and bomb attacks, were captured.

The leader of the cell, however,

blew himself up with a homemade

bomb when security officers tried

to detain him.

In St Petersburg, close to where

the England team will be based for

the contest, seven suspects were

detained following another CT

raid. The men had been communi-

cating with a terrorist recruiter

using the Telegram Messenger

app and were expected to be

“sent for terrorism training,” an

official said. Passpor ts, mobile

phones, an AK-47 rifle, hand

grenades and instructions for the

manufacture of IEDs were found

as well as means of communica-

tion and electronic data storage

devices containing terrorist

propaganda materials.

In Moscow, senior FSB officials

have identified terrorism as the

main threat to the World Cup.

Two suspects are detained during the raids

ISIS safe house used in planning

attacks during the 2018 World Cup

FSB officers

detain ISIS

suspect

Suspected ISIS cell members caught in an early morning raid

A suspect is led away by

an FSB CT officer

FSB Director

Alexander Bortnikov

September 2017.

President Putin

holds the World Cup

trophy in a

pre-tournament

event in Moscow