The US embassy in Moscow has warned of an imminent attack on the country’s capital in a recent statement.
According to a report in the Moscow Times, the statement issued as a warning to American citizens living in the city read: “The embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.”
The embassy did not comment on who the extremists were believed to be, nor did they provide any additional details about the alert.
Russian authorities have also not commented on the American embassy’s statement.
According to a report in the New Arab, Russia’s FSB had stated that they had apprehended and killed members belonging to a cell of the Islamic State (IS).
The cell had been based in Kaluga, which is southwest of Moscow, and the FSB stated that they had been planning to target Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in the capital.
“While being arrested, the terrorists put up armed resistance to the Russian FSB officers, and as a result were neutralised by return fire,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the security service as saying in a statement.
“Firearms, ammunition, as well as components for the manufacture of an improvised explosive device were found and seized,” it added.
It is not known if the US embassy had the IS threat in mind when they issued the warning.
Tensions between the US mission and Russian authorities have sharply risen, with the Moscow Times reporting that the US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy was recently summoned by the Russian foreign ministry to warn her that US diplomats should not be engaged in “subversive actions” that interfered in Russia’s internal affairs.
Such actions would be “firmly and resolutely suppressed, up to and including the expulsion as ‘persona non grata’ of United States Embassy staff involved in such actions,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The foreign ministry also stated that they had issued warnings to the American ambassador over the spreading of “propaganda” over the war in Ukraine, and it raised the case of three American non-profit organisations working in Russia.
They said these organisations were pushing “anti-Russian programs and projects” to recruit “agents of influence.”
The US embassy has not commented on these allegations so far.
The warning of an extremist attack and the summons comes in the wake of Russia’s elections which are scheduled from March 15-17. President Putin is likely to be the winner.
