Posted on 12/18/2017 8:14:13 AM PST by Kaslin
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Trump on Sunday for information United States intelligence agencies provided that helped thwart "a major terror attack" in St. Petersburg.
"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. No Russian lives were lost and the terrorist attackers were caught and are now incarcerated," a readout from the White House stated.
"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. President Trump stressed the importance of intelligence cooperation to defeat terrorists wherever they may be. Both leaders agreed that this serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together."
Both leaders also expressed their thanks to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, his team, and the entire intelligence community.
Putin also assured the president that if Russia ever had intelligence information about a potential terror attack in the United States they would immediately share the information.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday that seven Islamic State sympathizers were arrested for planning terror attacks in the city this weekend, including a suicide bombing in St. Petersburg's Kazansky Cathedral in addition to other high-traffic areas in the city, the Associated Press reports.
Explosive devices, automatic weapons, and extremist propaganda were found while searching one St. Petersburg apartment.
Russian TV stations have aired footage daily since Friday 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 the ex-Soviet nation of Tajikistan that borders Afghanistan.
The TV reports included footage of a metal container, which the suspects used as a laboratory for making explosives, according to the FSB. Another video showed operatives breaking the doors and raiding an apartment used by other suspects.
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. (AP)
Had the plot been successful, it would've been the first major terror attack since April, when a suicide bomber in St. Petersburg's subway killed 16 and injured more than 50 others.
Yes you need to look up the damage Sanctions have had on the Western bank accounts of Putin’s crony oligarchs and the anger of average Russians over their stagnating economy to understand why Putin is being extra nice.
Also worth nothing Russia’s upcoming “elections” (in quotation marks for a reason) are in March!
You should also note: that cynicism in Russia is so high right now over their lack of political options - when the terrorist attack happened in St. Petersburg last April, Russians thought it could have been timed by Putin himself following a string of protest movements a few weeks before...that it was Putin’s way of keeping them in line with fear. “You need me, or else.”
This is how some view several attacks that happened in the early 2000s in apartment buildings in Moscow and elsewhere...some of them were never fully explained.
Are these conpsiracies the equivalent to crazy 9/11 truthers? Perhaps. And even 9/11 trutherism has sway among many Russians as well.
How nice that every Russian thinks and feels exactly the same way. That all of their experiences and aspirations align so well.
Russians, like Americans, are not monolithic. It is exactly this broad-brushing that makes national cooperation so difficult.
Hugh, I speak as someone who lived there. I am not saying that EVERY Russian is the same person, but there is a collectivized commitment to the State and to nation that you will NOT see here...what with all our kneeling football players and things.
One can view this as “patriotism” — as a strength! It becomes a problem when people start getting fed up and have no way to address their grievances save for coup or revolution...and look at Russian history even at a cursory glance and you will see what I mean.
Its the system that is different.
It isn’t my intention to diminish your experience. I am not completely naïve to the character of the Russian people myself.
I do feel though, that conflating the Russian ethnicity with the Russian government may be going a bit far. You are welcome to disagree.
I’ve personally met (Soviet) Russian soldiers who would, as a matter of course, betray the Kremlin in small ways, but would never once think of betraying Russia.
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