In response to the US alert earlier this week on potential terrorist threats in Russia, the Finnish Foreign Ministry advised its people on Saturday to stay away from open gatherings in Moscow. Shortly after Russian officials claimed to have stopped an attempted attack on a Moscow synagogue, other nations joined the United States in cautioning its people living in Russia to stay away from gatherings due to an impending terrorist danger. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts,” according to a security notice, and “U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.”

Foiled plot in Moscow

The alert was promptly disseminated by the British Embassy in Moscow, which also cautioned British citizens against “all travel to Russia.” At least six more countries Canada, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, Latvia, and the Czech Republic had also joined in alerting their citizens to the purported threat. 

TASS, the Russian state media agency, reported that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had stopped an Islamic State terror cell from attempting “to commit a terrorist act against one of the Jewish religious institutions in Moscow,” despite the fact that the threat was vague. “Active search measures established that they were militants of an international terrorist organization preparing an attack on the congregation of a synagogue with the use of firearms,” the statement from the FSB said. “During an operation to detain them, the terrorists put up armed resistance to Russian FSB staff and as a result were neutralized by return fire,” the story says.

International response

It remained unclear if the alleged plan for the synagogue attack was connected to the threat that the U.S. embassy announced shortly after. The safety and security of American people abroad is the top concern, according to a spokesman for the U.S. State Department. However, the spokesman refrained from commenting on any possible link, citing the agency’s policy of withholding information on intelligence-related topics. 

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the U.S. embassy in Russia has repeatedly advised American citizens to flee the nation. The majority of the nations that this week joined the United States in alerting its nationals to potential extremist assaults have previously issued similar recommendations for their residents to flee Russia and refrain from visiting while the conflict rages.

Diplomatic engagements

It spurred a number of Putin supporters in Russia to publish unverified conspiracy theories alleging that the United States and the United Kingdom were preparing to carry out terrorist strikes in Russia and were going to blame the assaults on something else. A message on the pro-Kremlin Telegram group RIA Katyusha states, “The USA and Britain have even stopped hiding that they are behind the terrorist attacks in Russia.” 

The head editor of Russia’s state-run media channel, RT, Margarita Simonyan, allegedly made the suggestion that if “specific information” is not “passed on” to the Kremlin, the United States and the United Kingdom will be held “complicity” in future terror acts in Russia. Only a few hours had passed after the infamous KGB agency of Russia was replaced by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which declared that it had foiled an ISIS plan to massacre Jews in a Moscow synagogue. It’s unknown if the incidents are connected. The FSB reports that during an operation on an Islamic State cell in Kaluga, southwest of the city, a sizable cache of weapons and bomb parts was discovered.

Regional and global security implications

Before security personnel entered the building and shot and killed the congregants, Russian state television reported that militants were preparing to shoot Jewish worshipers in a synagogue in the capital. The security service said in a statement that “the terrorists put up armed resistance to the Russian FSB officers while they were being arrested, and as a result were neutralized by return fire,” according to the Russian state-owned TASS news agency. 

In conclusion, Coalition ministers reaffirmed that the coalition’s top focus continues to be the battle against Daesh/ISIS in Syria and Iraq. They emphasized how crucial it is to set aside sufficient funds to support the Coalition and its legal partners. The Coalition’s ministers also declared the beginning of the Stabilization Pledge Drive, which aims to raise $601 million for areas in Iraq and Syria that have been freed from Daesh/ISIS. To date, eight countries have pledged more than $300 million toward this effort.