Putin later called the embassy’s alerts “provocative” and “outright blackmail,” intended to damage Russian society. “I would also like to recall the recent provocative statements by a number of official Western structures regarding potential terrorist attacks in Russia,” Putin said during a March 19 meeting of the Federal Security Board, per a Kremlin transcript. “All these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society. You are well aware of them, so I will not go into details at this point.”