"The group came from the city of Novyj Urengoj and was planning a series of major attacks in the Moscow region" - reads the document made public by the FSB. Novyj Urengoj is a city in northwestern Siberia, a few kilometers south of the Arctic Circle.

The public security department reported that the terrorists were communicating with extremists in Syria through the Telegram messaging application. The Russian telecommunications authority Roskomnadzor banned Telegram from federal territory by order of the Tagansky District Court for the refusal of Pavel Durov, owner of the application, to hand over to the secret services the encryption keys of the messages, which the FSB wanted for the safety of citizens.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) conducted special security operations in the city of Novyj Urengoj, Twenty people were arrested and 17 searches were carried out. Propaganda materials from the Islamic State have been found.

Last year, Russian security forces foiled 25 terrorist attacks, while four terrorist attacks were carried out on Russian territory - according to data provided by FSB commander Alexander Bortnikov. In the first quarter of this year, special services liquidated 12 cells that had planned at least six terrorist attacks. The Russian secret services arrested 189 people, including terrorists, accomplices and supporters, while another 15 people were killed by the police.