MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The recent help of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in foiling a terrorist attack in the Russian city of St. Petersburg is an "exemplary model of the bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism," which helped save many lives, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Speaking about the Russian and US intelligence cooperation, Peskov said, "Certain contacts between special services are carried out sporadically. But you see that in this case it was very useful information that helped to save many lives. And, of course, this cannot but cause gratification, feelings of gratitude, and this was announced yesterday during a telephone conversation by our president to President Trump," Peskov told reporters.
According to Peskov, this was the first example of bilateral interaction with such an effective result.
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At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman has refrained from providing further details regarding the exact information given by the CIA.
The statement comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his US counterpart Donald Trump held a telephone conversation for the assistance of the CIA, which provided intelligence daya on terrorists who had been preparing attacks in St. Petersburg. According to the White House statement, Trump told Putin that Washington was pleased to save many lives in Russia, with both presidents agreeing that the foiled terror attack was an example of positive cooperation between the two states.
On Friday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had detained a cell of Daesh supporters in a special operation on December 13-14 that had been planning to commit "high-profile attacks" in St. Petersburg aiming to kill people by detonating explosive devices in crowded places, adding that "a significant amount of explosives, components of improvised explosive devices, automatic weapons, ammunition, extremist literature were seized from them. A laboratory manufacturing explosive devices was destroyed." According to a video posted by the FSB, one of detained Daesh supporters has admitted his involvement in the preparation of terrorist acts in the city.
