Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday telephoned US President Donald Trump to thank him for a CIA tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in St Petersburg, the Kremlin and the White House said.
During the call, the two leaders’ second in three days, Putin expressed gratitude for the CIA’s information.
The Kremlin said it led the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to a group of suspects that planned to bomb St Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral and other crowded sites this past weekend.
“The information received from the CIA proved sufficient to find and detain the criminal suspects,” the Kremlin said.
The White House said in its readout of the conversation that “based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people.”
The White House added that Putin extended his thanks and congratulations to CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the entire agency.
Trump then called Pompeo “to congratulate him, his very talented people and the entire intelligence community on a job well done!” the readout said.
“President Trump appreciated the call and told President Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives,” the White House said in its statement.
“President Trump stressed the importance of intelligence cooperation to defeat terrorists wherever they may be,” it said. “Both leaders agreed that this serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together.”
The Kremlin said Putin assured Trump that “if the Russian intelligence agencies receive information about potential terror threats against the United States and its citizens, they will immediately hand it over to their US counterparts via their communications channels.”
The FSB on Friday announced that seven suspected Islamic State (IS) group militants had been arrested for allegedly planning to carry out terror attacks in St Petersburg over the weekend.
The agency said the suspects were plotting a suicide bombing in a church and a series of other explosions in the city’s busiest areas this coming weekend on IS orders.
It said a search of a St Petersburg apartment found explosives, automatic weapons and extremist literature.
Russian news reports said that Kazan Cathedral, a landmark 19th century Russian Orthodox church on St Petersburg’s central Nevsky Prospect, was the prime target.
Muslim terrorists have blown up apartment buildings, passenger planes and transport facilities in Russia. In April, a suicide bombing in St Petersburg’s metro left 16 dead and wounded more than 50.
Russian TV stations have since Friday aired footage of the suspects in the foiled attacks being apprehended and questioned.
One segment showed FSB operatives outside a St Petersburg apartment building detaining a suspect, who appeared later saying he was told to prepare homemade bombs rigged with shrapnel.
“My job was to make explosives, put it in bottles and attach pieces of shrapnel,” the suspect, identified by Russian media as 18-year old Yevgeny Yefimov, said in the footage released by the FSB.
Several other suspects came from mostly Muslim regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus, and one man was from Tajikistan.
Last week, the FSB said it also arrested several IS-linked suspects in Moscow, where they allegedly were plotting a series of suicide bombings to coincide with New Year’s celebrations.
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