The FSB has detained a student in connection with a terrorist plot in Volgodonsk

A college student intended to bring a backpack containing a homemade explosive device equivalent to 10 kg of TNT to the Volgodonsk administration building and hand it over to an official. 

As reported by the " Caucasian Knot ," a terrorist attack was previously thwarted at a prison colony in the Rostov Region . According to the FSB, the prisoners were supporters of a terrorist organization banned in Russia. According to a plan they hatched while serving their sentences, they planned to take prison staff hostage and set fire to the buildings.

The FSB reported the arrest of a college student in Volgodonsk. According to the agency, she was planning to commit a terrorist attack "in a crowded place" on orders from Ukrainian intelligence agencies. Officially, police stopped the 2009-born student near Yunost Park for a search while walking toward the city administration building. Upon inspection, they discovered "signs of an improvised explosive device" in the backpack, and bomb disposal experts were called to the scene.

The device's explosive power was approximately 10 kg of TNT equivalent. The detainee reported that she had taken the backpack from a hiding place on the outskirts of the city and intended to hand it over to an administration official, RBC quoted the FSB Public Relations Center as saying.

According to the girl, who was detained at 12:30 PM, she retrieved the backpack from a hiding place near the Veteran gardening community on the outskirts of Volgodonsk and was supposed to deliver it by 1:00 PM. "Based on the student's explanation, about a month ago she became another victim of online scammers. In reality, the girl could have become a 'suicide bomber,'" TASS quotes the FSB statement.

It should also be noted that the special services released a video showing the defusing of an explosive device: a man in special clothing approaches a backpack standing on the street, then steps away, after which an explosion occurs.

In the second part of the video, the girl testifies. According to her, "four weeks ago," an unknown person called her, claiming to be from the Wildberries delivery service. He said she needed to "confirm her details for the courier" and asked her to dictate the code. Afterward, she received an email informing her that her account had been hacked. That evening, she received a call from people allegedly working for the Gosuslugi (Gosuslugi) website, also informing her of the hack. Then, she received a call from impersonating Central Bank employees. The latter claimed the hackers had transferred money from her account to Ukraine and that the student was facing a ten-year prison sentence. 

Unknown individuals demanded 100,000 rubles from the student, and when she admitted she didn't have the money, they offered to "help the Motherland." The interlocutor told the student that a military agency would contact her and asked her to download Yandex Messenger. Then, the unknown individuals claimed that law enforcement needed to detain the deputy responsible for the hacking of the student's data. The student was asked to retrieve a backpack from a hiding place, supposedly containing money and a listening device, and then meet the deputy, hand him the backpack, and pretend to offer a bribe. The official would then be detained on the spot.

As a reminder, on December 15, ten Russians were detained in five regions . They are accused of setting fire to law enforcement vehicles and committing "illegal interference in the operations of energy and transport facilities" on orders from Ukrainian intelligence agencies. Under the influence of fraudsters, they obtained loans and transferred between 300,000 and 1.6 million rubles to "safe accounts."