Police on the streets of Moscow on December 19, 2020. (Illustration). - Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP

Suspected of preparing to attack a school using homemade weapons and explosives, two teenagers were arrested in Russia, the security services (FSB) said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Born in 2005 and of Russian nationality, the two young people were active on various websites where they praised mass murder and suicide, explained the FSB. They planned to attack a "school building" in Saratov, a town in the Volga.

A "revenge" according to one of the two young people

The FSB specifies that their arrest took place in an old bomb shelter where the teenagers kept a sawed-off shotgun and planned to make "incendiary mixtures" thanks to instructions found on the Internet. An investigation was opened against them for "belonging to a group planning multiple murders".

According to the Russian news agency Tass, one of the suspects informed the investigators that he wished to act by "revenge" and planned to kill 40 people. According to Russian news agencies, since 2018, the FSB has prevented 50 attacks on schools and dismantled 150 groups of young "extremists" active on the Internet.

Businesses made up from scratch according to NGOs

At the end of 2018, an 18-year-old adolescent had killed 20 people before committing suicide in an attack on an educational establishment in the city of Kerch, on the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia. At the same time, accusations of terrorism or extremism targeting various political groups, in particular young people, have increased in Russia.

In mid-February, seven young men accused by the FSB of planning attacks were sentenced to six to 18 years in prison, sparking outrage and calls for their release. According to human rights NGOs, this case was fabricated, with falsification of evidence and confessions obtained under torture.

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  • Teenager