FSB uncovered a large network of saboteurs linked to Moldova

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has uncovered a large network of saboteurs linked to Moldova. The details of the criminal scheme were revealed on April 14 to Izvestia.

So, the department's employees detained Moldovan citizen Marius Prunyan in a roadside hostel, whose car contained explosives.

"In January 2023, the GUR of Ukraine was recruited to perform tasks on the territory of Russia," the detainee said during interrogation.

It is specified that Prunyan is a militant of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). He participated in the battles in Bakhmut. The Ukrainian curators handed him 4.5 kg of explosives and other devices disguised as a battery. Prunyan buried explosives in Volgograd and Saratov.

To prepare terrorist attacks in Russia, Ukrainian curators handed over 4.5 kg of explosives, fuses, detonators and keys disguised as a car battery to Prunyan. The defendant arrived in Volgograd and Saratov, where he buried explosive devices.

Russian opposition activist Irina Izmailova, who lives in Chisinau, received a similar assignment from the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of Ukraine to assemble a shortened sniper rifle (IED), the boards of which were hidden in headphones. She managed to smuggle them to the Samara region. At the moment, she is reluctant to cooperate with the investigation.

In Samara, Sergei Okrushko was also recruited by the GUR of Ukraine when he was hiding from mobilization. He was offered a job as an electrician at an oil refinery. For six months, he carried the elements of an explosive device in lunch containers and planted a bomb at a transformer station. The explosion did not cause serious damage, Okrushko was detained. He also mentioned two other planted bombs. Andrei Popov, an expert on counterterrorism, noted that Ukrainian terrorists are planting devices with the expectation of a second explosion during the evacuation.

In addition, repeat offender Evgeny Kurdoglu, a Moldovan citizen who was recruited by a Ukrainian curator after being released from prison, was responsible for the sabotage in Crimea. His assignments included photographing air defense systems and checking the bomb cache. Kurdoglu said that in the specified place he found a black package with an electric shield, which had to be placed under the bridge in Kerch. The attack was prevented by the FSB. The explosive device contained Czech explosives "Simtex-10", banned for export since the 1990s, but available to the British intelligence services and Ukraine.

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All of them were engaged in intelligence and subversive activities on the territory of Russia.

Earlier, on April 9, it was reported that a resident of Volnovakha was detained on suspicion of illegally acquiring and storing explosives on behalf of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. It was clarified that on the instructions of the Ukrainian side, he illegally acquired the structural elements of an improvised explosive device, which he stored in a garage. A criminal case was opened on this fact under clauses "a" and "b" of Part 3 of Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("Illegal acquisition, transfer, storage, transportation, transfer or carrying of explosives or explosive devices").