April 3 marks the one-year anniversary of the terror bombing that killed 15 people in a subway car traveling between two St. Petersburg metro stations. Investigators suspect 22-year-old Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, a Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen, of being the man who detonated the homemade explosive.

Investigators have identified the organizers of the St. Petersburg metro bombing a year after the tragedy, saying their investigation into the terrorist attack is drawing to a close.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Tuesday it has “identified the entire chain of persons involved in the perpetration of this crime, including its instigator, organizer and executors” jointly with the FSB.

“The terror attack was carried out by members of a radical Islamic terrorist group,” investigators said in an online statement Tuesday, adding that 11 suspects were being held in connection with the bombing.

The investigation said that the plotters were not personally acquainted with one another and had used online forms of communication to organize the attack.

“A thorough analysis of so called ‘electronic trails,’ which are left after these forms of communication, allowed [investigators] to expose and identify all of the members of the criminal group in the shortest time,” the statement said.



An ongoing legal dispute between the FSB and the encrypted messaging service Telegram over access to the St. Petersburg bombing suspects’ online conversations has threatened the app’s presence in Russia. </s> MOSCOW - Eight people suspected of involvement in the Saint Petersburg metro bombing were detained Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

“Six people were detained in Saint Petersburg and two in Moscow who are involved in the act of terror” following an investigation and search operation conducted with the FSB security service and interior ministry, the committee said in a statement.

Investigators said they discovered, in one of the suspects’ residences, an explosive device “identical” to the one found at a Saint Petersburg metro station that was discovered shortly before another device exploded in a tunnel killing 13 people. They also recovered firearms and ammunition from the suspects’ residences, the committee said.

The committee said a court will soon rule on detention measures for the eight suspects, who seem to bear Central Asian names.

Investigators said earlier Thursday that they had raided the flat of “several citizens of Central Asian republics, who had been in contact” with the suspected bomber, 22-year-old Akbarjon Djalilov.

They confiscated other objects “relevant to the investigation” at his acquaintances’ flat but did not disclose their nature.

Investigators said Djalilov — believed to be a Russian citizen born in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan — had set off a bomb in a train carriage travelling between two busy Saint Petersburg metro stations on Monday afternoon.

His remains were found at the site of the blast and traces of his DNA were also discovered on a bag containing the bomb at another metro station that was successfully defused, investigators said.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has ordered officials to look into any potential “links” between the alleged attacker and the Islamic State group.

Jihadists from IS - which includes foreign fighters from ex-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus region - have repeatedly threatened an attack on Russian soil in revenge for Moscow’s military backing of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. </s> SAINT PETERSBURG: The Russian authorities on Friday (Apr 7) charged eight people with terrorism offences following the bomb attack on the Saint Petersburg metro which killed 13 people on Monday.

A court in Saint Petersburg said six suspects, aged 20 to 39, would be held until Jun 2 while the investigation into the attack continued.

They were arrested Thursday, and investigators said they found in one of the suspects' residences an explosive device "identical" to the one found at a metro station that was discovered shortly before another device exploded in a tunnel.

They also recovered firearms and ammunition from the suspects' residences, according to Russia's Investigative Committee. They face charges of terrorism and accessory to terrorism.

Two other suspected accomplices, a man and a woman, were arrested in Moscow on Thursday and have also been charged with terrorism, the TASS news agency said.

One of those, a 24-year-old, had admitted to being in contact with the suspected bomber, 22-year-old Akbarjon Djalilov, according to local press reports.

Djalilov's remains were found at the site of the blast and traces of his DNA were also discovered on a bag containing the bomb at another metro station that was successfully defused, investigators said.

They have not yet determined any motive for the attack, and are looking into possible links with the Islamic State group, though it has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Security forces also arrested Wednesday in Saint Petersburg seven citizens from Central Asian countries who are suspected of recruiting "terrorists".

But the arrests are not linked to Djalilov "for the moment", the authorities said. </s> Russia’s Investigative Committee on Wednesday said it had detained six “terrorist” recruiters from Central Asia in Saint Petersburg, but insisted there was no proof yet of a link between them and the suspected metro bomber in the city.

The authorities said that those detained had been recruiting people to join groups including the Islamic State “to carry out terrorist crimes” and join “illegal armed groups” abroad. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Monday's bombing injured 50 people

Eight people are being held in connection with the bombing on St Petersburg metro, Russian investigators have confirmed.

The arrests - six in Moscow, two in St Petersburg - came three days after 13 people were killed in the attack.

Earlier on Thursday, an explosive device was made safe in a flat in St Petersburg by Russian police.

Neighbours were moved away and witnesses told local media they saw men led out in handcuffs.

The main suspect in the metro bombing, Akbarzhon Jalilov, also died in the explosion.

He was aged 22 and from the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. His remains were identified by his parents on Wednesday, and by DNA testing.

Russian investigators are examining tape, tin foil and some other suspicious items found at Jalilov's St Petersburg flat.

Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) says they appear similar to components found in a device left at Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station on the day of the bombing.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The bomb went off between two stations but the driver continued to Tekhnologichesky Institut

The flat raided at around 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Thursday was in Tovarishchesky Prospekt in the east of St Petersburg.

"An explosive device found in the flat has been made safe. Several suspects have been arrested; they didn't resist and there's now no threat to local people," the head of the local authority Konstantin Serov was quoted as saying.

Sources told Interfax news agency that investigators were examining possible links between the men and the alleged bomber.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ulvi Fatullayev describes the moments after Monday's blast

Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) said on Thursday they had established that "several citizens of Central Asian republics were in contact with Jalilov".

Eight people from Central Asia were also arrested in the city on Wednesday as part of the metro bomb investigation. The SK said they were held for allegedly recruiting for Islamist militant groups such as so-called Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra since 2015, and "committing crimes of a terrorist nature".

The SK has named the 13 people who died, aside from Jalilov, on Monday afternoon after the train had left Sennaya Ploshchad station. About 50 injured are being treated in hospital.

The dead were named as: </s> Baku. 20 April. REPORT.AZ/ The special services have established the identity of paymaster in the St. Petersburg metro terror attack.

Report informs citing the RIA Novosti, Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said.

About 10 people have been detained in case of the terrorist act.

On April 3, a powerful explosion thundered in St. Petersburg metro, 15 people were killed.

The blast occurred just after 2:30 p.m. (7:40 a.m. ET) as the train was traveling in a tunnel from Sennaya Ploshchad to Tekhnologichesky Institut stations in the city center. In the confusion, initial reports suggested there were two blasts.

According to preliminary information, the perpetrator of the terrorist act was Akbarjon Jalilov, a 22-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan.

Investigators believe that it was he who left the disguised bomb on the Vosstaniye Square and then blew himself up in the train car. Special services believe that the organizers of the terrorist attack were influenced by the propagandists of the ISIS. Among the possible ideologists of the attack, the sources of RBC are called Islam Atabiev, nicknamed Abu Jihad. </s> The FSB reported last year that it had thwarted a total of 18 terrorist acts in 2017, including on New Year’s Eve and on the first day of the school year.

Russian security forces have prevented six terrorist attacks this year, including two planned on election day in March, the head of the Federal Security Services (FSB) said Tuesday.

New Year’s Terror Plot Foiled in Moscow, Russia’s FSB Says

“Six terrorist acts were prevented at the preparatory stage [in January-March],” the state-run TASS news agency cited FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov as saying Tuesday.

Speaking at the National Anti-Terrorism Committee session in Moscow, Bortnikov said two Islamic State attacks had been prevented in Russia’s Muslim-majority republic of Ingushetia and the southwestern region of Saratov in March.

In Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan, Bortnikov said two members of a “right-wing radical group” were detained plotting an election-day attack, while terrorists suspected of plotting an attack at a shopping mall were killed in Saratov.

The total body count of militants and their accomplices killed so far this year stood at 15, with 189 suspects detained and 12 terror cells disbanded.

Russia’s Dagestan, Khabarovsk and Sakhalin were targeted in three terrorist attacks, Bortnikov said. </s> ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA—Russian security agents on Thursday arrested three people suspected of links to a suicide bomber accused of attacking the city’s subway and deactivated an explosive device in the apartment where they lived.The Investigative Committee said the suspects are residents of the former Soviet Central Asia region like the bomber, 22-year-old Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, a native of Kyrgyzstan. Dzhalilov blew himself up on a busy subway line Monday, killing himself and 13 others and wounding over 50 people.The impoverished, predominantly Muslim countries in Central Asia are seen as fertile ground for Islamic extremists, and thousands of their citizens are believed to have joined Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Syria and Iraq.Read more:Suicide bomber behind St. Petersburg subway explosion, Russian investigators sayThe committee, the nation’s top criminal investigation agency, said investigators also found objects that would help advance the probe during a search of the home on St. Petersburg’s eastern outskirts.Article Continued BelowPeople gather to commemorate the victims of the subway blast at The Field of Mars in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday. The bombing killed 13 people and wounded over 50. (OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) The Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that its experts defused a self-made explosive device at the apartment. The news reports said three people were arrested.A leading St. Petersburg news portal, Fontanka.ru, said materials used in the explosive device found Thursday matched those used by militants in Syria.An unidentified law enforcement official told the Tass news agency that investigators were checking information that Dzhalilov may have trained with Daesh in Syria. </s> SIMFEROPOL - At least 19 people were killed and dozens more wounded, most of them teenagers, after an attack on a college in Russian-annexed Crimea on Wednesday, with conflicting versions referring to a lone shooter and a bomb.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said the attack was carried out by 18-year-old student Vladislav Roslyakov, who was captured on security camera footage carrying a gun in the technical college in Kerch and whose body was later found with gunshot wounds.

The Investigative Committee, which probes major incidents, had initially classified the attack as an act of terror, but later said it was investigating a mass murder after “this young man shot dead people in the college and then committed suicide,” adding that all victims died of gunshot wounds.

The attack had first been reported as an explosion, with Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee saying an “unidentified explosive device” had gone off. Committee spokesman Andrei Przhezdomsky said bomb squads were working “at the blast site”, adding the body of Roslyakov was found in the college next to a pump-action gun.

The Investigative Committee said 18 were killed in the attack which took place at around 12 noon (0900 GMT) on the peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014. However Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov told Russian Rossiya-24 television that the death toll had risen to 19, with more than 40 injured.

“The supposed killer shot himself, it’s a student in the fourth year who was studying at the college. His body was found in the library on the first floor,” Aksyonov wrote on Facebook.

The Investigative Committee said most of the victims were teenagers. The college’s website says it accepts students in the last three grades of school, from the age of 14.

Aksyonov announced three days of mourning from Thursday over the “terrible tragedy”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is currently in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said in televised comments that a “tragic event” had happened and that “as a result of an explosion of an explosive device, people died and many are injured”.

He was speaking during talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and made the statement before the Investigative Committee said the crime was a mass shooting rather than a terrorist attack. “It’s already clear that it’s a crime, the motive and possible versions for this tragedy are being carefully examined,” Putin said.

“I want to express condolences to the relatives of the dead and express the hope that the injured recover as quickly as possible,” the president said, calling for a minute’s silence to mourn the victims. Kerch is linked to the Russian mainland by a bridge opened by Putin in May.

Witnesses said that the attacker fired shots but also spoke of hearing an explosion.

A student at the college who asked not to give his name told AFP that “I was in a class when I heard shooting on the first floor.”

“When we all ran out into the corridor, there were others running and shouting that some guy with a machine gun was randomly shooting everyone in turn.”

“Then a strong explosion went off, but thank God, I was already outside and saw our guys being thrown out of the windows by the explosive wave,” he said, adding that part of the building collapsed.

Another witness who gave his name as Sergei and who worked nearby said in a video on the Kerch.tv website that he heard “a bang and shots.”

Sergei, whose shirt was covered in blood, said victims “were taken away in public transport, in minibuses and buses, with two or three people in each ambulance.”

“They are children and staff,” the witness said. “I saw people without legs, without arms.”
On the first anniversary of the attack Russia's Investigative Committee releases a statement saying they have identified all participants, have eleven suspects in custody, and have almost concluded their investigation.