Three men from Central Asia arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack in Russia

Russian security services did not specify which of the five former Soviet Central Asian countries the men were from. Photo: TELEGRAM

Police in southern Russia have arrested three men from Central Asia on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack a week after Islamic State terrorists from Tajikistan killed 144 people at a rock concert in Moscow.

The three men “planned a terrorist attack together with an explosion in a crowded place in the Stavropol region,” the Russian TASS news agency quoted a representative of the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying.

Russian intelligence services did not specify which of the five former Soviet Central Asian countries they were from these people.

The FSB published a video of men buying food and nails, and then its agents rushed in and knocked them to the ground.

“IED components, chemicals and submunitions” were detained in the homes of those arrested, reports the Baza Telegram channel associated with Russian security forces.

The suspects were knocked to the ground by Russian FSB agents. Photo: TELEGRAM

Russia is on edge after the attack on the Crocus City Hall building in north-west Moscow, the worst terrorist attack in Russia in the last 20 years.

The attack was believed to have been carried out by the Khorasan branch of the Islamic Organization. A state that operates in Afghanistan and recruits people from Central Asia.

Central Asian governments have since warned their citizens to expect a backlash.

There have been reports of attacks on Tajik enterprises and cafes, and Russian police have stepped up document checks of people from Central Asia.

First Department, a Russian human rights group, also said police were detaining migrants. and deport them. He quoted an unnamed lawyer from St. Petersburg as saying he saw “at least two full planes” flying back to Central Asia.

“There are also raids on dormitories and apartments. All special detention centers are overcrowded,” the lawyer said.

According to the Interfax news agency, a court in St. Petersburg said 400 migrants were expelled to Russia this weekend in a crackdown on Central Asian workers in Russia without proper documents.

The attackers in Moscow fit the pattern 

Russian security forces regularly claim the defeat of Islamist terrorist cells. Earlier in March, FSB officers killed two Kazakhs near Moscow. They were reported to be planning an attack on a synagogue.

Many migrant workers travel from Central Asia to work in Russia, but they are often mistreated and vulnerable to Islamic State recruiters.

< p>Edward Lemon, a Central Asia specialist and professor at Texas A&M University, said the recruitment of the Crocus City Hall attackers appeared to fit this pattern.

“They migrated to Russia relatively recently; especially religious and appear to have quickly mobilized for violence,” he said.

However, Maximilian Hess, author of Economic Warfare: Ukraine and the Global Conflict between Russia and the West, said that Vladimir Putin warned Russian officials not to overreact to migrant workers as they have become vital to the Kremlin's war.

“Russia is facing a severe labor shortage as Putin has pushed the economy into full war mode,” he said. “The main source of labor for such employment is migrant workers from Central Asia.”

Since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine two years ago, the Russian labor force has shrunk as hundreds of thousands of men have been conscripted into the army and even more. left the country.