Russia Detains Teenager Over Threat to Moscow's Tsaritsyno Museum
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the country's main security agency, says it has detained a teenager accused of threatening an attack on the Tsaritsyno Museum and Nature Reserve in Moscow. The arrest followed a warning from the US Embassy in Moscow about a credible threat of a mass casualty event at the site.
The embassy issued the warning as a Security Alert, a formal notice to its citizens, and posted it on 31 October. It said the threat was for that day. The Art Newspaper reported that German citizens in Russia received a similar warning, citing Der Spiegel.
On 1 November, the FSB announced the detention of a minor over threats to carry out an attack. The agency said it had checked information from US law enforcement before making the arrest. It thanked the American side for the tip. Reuters and NBC News both reported the FSB's announcement.
The FSB also said that planned cultural events at the museum-reserve were cancelled. Security was stepped up in the area around it.
The agency released a video of the detention showing an unidentified young man. According to the FSB, the footage shows a knife, camouflage clothing and neo-Nazi material on his phone. The FSB says he confessed to posting Nazi propaganda on TikTok, the video-sharing app.
The FSB also claimed that the teenager had posted TikTok images of himself in tactical gear, including a balaclava, cap, eyewear and headset. In them he held an object that looked like an automatic weapon, the agency said. It also said he posted photos taken at the museum-reserve with the caption "I found a place." These are the FSB's claims.
Tsaritsyno is a large park and historic palace complex in southern Moscow, popular with families, students and tourists. Cancelled events mean lost work for the staff who plan and run them, and lost visits for the people who had tickets.
