On December 17, Vladimir Putin thanked his US
counterpart, Donald Trump, for the CIA tipoff that led to the capture of
terrorists who had plotted bomb attacks in St. Petersburg.
MOSCOW,
December 18. /TASS/. The US Central Intelligence Agency’s information handed
over to Russia about preparations for a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg is a
perfect sample of US-Russian cooperation in the struggle with terrorism,
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told the media.
"Certain
contacts between the two countries’ special services are sporadic, but in this
particular case it was a very useful piece of information that helped save many
lives. This cannot but evoke satisfaction and a feeling of gratitude and be interpreted
as a perfect sample of bilateral cooperation in the struggle against terrorism.
This is precisely the kind of standards worth pursuing in our future
course."
He recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin had said more than once not a single country was capable of resisting terrorism effectively enough on its own, "and this is a very graphic example showing that effective struggle against terrorism is possible only in the context of cooperation by various countries, in the first place, Russia and the United States."
Peskov
agreed that the information shared by the CIA was the first fruitful case of
bilateral cooperation by secret services.
"Possibly,
it will be right to say so," Peskov remarked.
He confirmed
that the information had been used by the federal security service FSB for
detaining in St. Petersburg seven members of a terrorist cell of the Islamic
State (outlawed in Russia). The FSB declared the detention on December 15.
Peskov avoided disclosing any details of the information exchange. In part, he
refrained from replying to speculations if the CIA’s information contained
evidence the detainees might have been using the messenger Telegram for
coordination.
"I
cannot say anything on that score. I do not have such information," Peskov
said.
The issue
of a new meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US
counterpart Donald Trump was not discussed during the two presidents’ latest
telephone contacts, he said.
Putin and
Trump held two telephone conversations at the end of last week. On Friday,
December 15, they, according to the Kremlin, discussed pressing bilateral
issues and the situation in crisis areas with an emphasis on resolving the
nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.
On Sunday, December
17, the two leaders spoke over the phone once again. This time, Putin thanked
Trump for the data provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which
helped detain the terrorists who were preparing explosions in St. Petersburg’s
Kazan Cathedral and in other crowded places in the city. The information
received from the CIA turned out to be sufficient for detecting and arresting
the criminals, the Kremlin reported.
During the
conversation, the Russian head of state asked the US president to convey his
gratitude to the CIA director and the US intelligence operatives who obtained
this information. Putin also assured Trump that the Russian intelligence
services, if they receive information concerning terrorist threats against the
US and its citizens, will promptly hand it over to their American counterparts
through partnership channels.
Source: ITAR-TASS 18-12-2017
