Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday it had detained a Russian citizen, a minor, over an alleged plan to attack the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, a palace and park complex in southern Moscow.
The agency said information passed to it by United States law enforcement led to the arrest, and that it was “grateful to the US side for the information provided.”
The detention followed a security alert issued on Saturday by the US Embassy in Moscow, which said it was “aware of a credible threat of a mass casualty event” at the museum. The embassy advised people to avoid the area, and told US citizens in the city to stay away from crowded places and remain alert.
According to the FSB, the suspect was identified after posting images on TikTok showing himself in tactical clothing and holding an “object resembling an automatic weapon,” along with photographs taken at the museum captioned “I found a place.” A search of his home recovered the clothing and accessories seen in the images, the agency said, and his phone showed searches relating to terrorist attacks and mass killings as well as a subscription to a neo-Nazi Telegram channel.
The suspect has not been named. Russia’s Investigative Committee is determining what charges to bring.
The museum told CNN after the alert was issued that it was not aware of any warnings. It was closed to the public on Saturday as a precaution, and Russian state media reported that several scheduled events were subsequently cancelled and additional security put in place.
Hiru News, which carried the initial warning in Sri Lanka on Saturday citing Fox News and the US Embassy, reported the FSB as saying through the TASS news agency that it had received the information “through established cooperation channels” and that operations were already under way. The outlet noted that the embassy had issued a comparable advance warning before the March 2024 attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, in which more than 130 people were killed.
