MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - A tip-off by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped Russian security services foil a series of terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his US counterpart Donald Trump to thank him for the unprecedented gesture of support from the intelligence agency of a country seen as Russia's major rival.
A White House read-out Sunday said that based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people.
No Russian lives were lost and the terrorist attackers were caught and are now incarcerated, it added.
The White House said Trump appreciated the call and told Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives.
'Trump stressed the importance of intelligence cooperation to defeat terrorists wherever they may be. Both leaders agreed that this serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together'.
The Kremlin press service said Putin extended his thanks and congratulations to CIA and its Director Mike Pompeo for the tip off, and reassured the US president that 'Russia's security services, should they have information about possible terrorist threats to the United States and its citizens, will swiftly and unconditionally share it with their US colleagues via partner channels.'
The Kremlin said the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained in St. Petersburg seven members of the Islamic State terrorist group using information provided by the US intelligence agency.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov termed it as a perfect example of US-Russian cooperation in the fight against terrorism, which is 'precisely the kind of standards worth pursuing in our future course.'
Terrorists had plotted the bomb attack to take place on Saturday in St. Petersburg's Kazan Cathedral and in other crowded places in Russia's second largest city.
FSB said a significant amount of explosives, weapons and extremist literature were seized.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX