The gunmen were planning to carry out “high-profile terrorist attacks using self-made explosive devices on the territory of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk region”.
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Russia’s state security service says it has detained seven people in the country’s Ural mountain region on suspicion of terrorist activities.
During raids in Yekaterinburg, security services uncovered an explosives laboratory, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
The authorities also found IED components, electric detonators, hand grenades, handguns and extremist reading matter. The suspects were accused of terrorism charges, “ammunition trafficking” and illegal storage of explosives.
The group had been led by an ISIL fighter who had arrived from Turkey, the FSB said, giving no further detail.
After carrying out the attacks, the militants planned to travel to Syria to fight in the conflict there, according to the FSB. It added the group meant to leave to join IS in Syria after the alleged attacks.
The Islamic State has pledged to carry out terror attacks in Russian Federation in revenge for Moscow’s military intervention in Syria.
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In the past few months, Russian security services have said they have interrupted a number of terror plots in Russia, and have arrested and killed militants they accuse of belonging to ISIS.
