Posted on 12/18/2017 8:14:13 AM PST by Kaslin
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Trump on Sunday for information United States intelligence agencies provided that helped thwart "a major terror attack" in St. Petersburg.
"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," a readout from the White House stated.
"President Trump appreciated the call and told President Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives. President 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."
Both leaders also expressed their thanks to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, his team, and the entire intelligence community.
Putin also assured the president that if Russia ever had intelligence information about a potential terror attack in the United States they would immediately share the information.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday that seven Islamic State sympathizers were arrested for planning terror attacks in the city this weekend, including a suicide bombing in St. Petersburg's Kazansky Cathedral in addition to other high-traffic areas in the city, the Associated Press reports.
Explosive devices, automatic weapons, and extremist propaganda were found while searching one St. Petersburg apartment.
Russian TV stations have aired footage daily since Friday of the suspects in the foiled attacks being apprehended and questioned. One segment showed FSB operatives outside a St. Petersburg apartment building detaining a suspect, who appeared later saying he was told to prepare homemade bombs rigged with shrapnel.
“My job was to make explosives, put it in bottles and attach pieces of shrapnel,” the suspect, identified by Russian media as 18-year old Yevgeny Yefimov, said in the footage released by the FSB.
Several other suspects came from mostly Muslim regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus, and one man was from the ex-Soviet nation of Tajikistan that borders Afghanistan.
The TV reports included footage of a metal container, which the suspects used as a laboratory for making explosives, according to the FSB. Another video showed operatives breaking the doors and raiding an apartment used by other suspects.
Last week, the FSB said it also arrested several IS-linked suspects in Moscow, where they allegedly were plotting a series of suicide bombings to coincide with New Year’s celebrations. (AP)
Had the plot been successful, it would've been the first major terror attack since April, when a suicide bomber in St. Petersburg's subway killed 16 and injured more than 50 others.
Human rights and Islamic terrorists are a non-sequiturs... would you like to give them milk and cookies too?
Goat’s milk, and female genital cookies.
Go play with yourself somewhere else.
I, for one, am glad to see SOME degree of cooperation between us and the Russians.
Before commenting further, anyone reading this has to know my background. My paternal grandfather was born in the southern Ukraine. Being Jewish, he and his family suffered a fair amount from anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, my great grandfather continued a water delivery business that his father had started, and expanded it considerably - at one point, he employed 50 or so people. He took excess money from that business and built 14 houses over time, renting them to families who needed housing. Then came the Revolution, and the Communists took everything from him, even forcing my great grandparents to take on 3 families in their own home. About 15 years later, my broke and largely broken great grandfather was deemed to be such a great threat to Stalin’s rule that he was dragged into an NKVD prison, and beaten so badly that he died shortly after being released (just like Otto Warmbier and his North Korean experience). Meanwhile the rest of the family, except my grandfather and one of his brothers, was stuck in the giant open-air prison called the Soviet Union for the duration.
So I have PLENTY of reason to absolutely DESPISE Russian and Communism. Nonetheless, I think that in looking at the interests of this country before my own biases, I can see very great potential rewards for merely talking about those interests that we and the Russians (no longer Communist) have (such as Islamic terrorism and the preservation of Western Civilization). To the extent that we can cooperate and build trust over time (and I’m under no illusions that it will be easy or fast - there’s a lot of water under the bridge), this allows for MORE cooperation and trust later. Perhaps, in a generation or so, we may even be allies - not allies of convenience, like during WW2 when Germany was a far greater and more immediate threat to both of us, than we were to each other. At the least, we’ll get to know each other better, understand each other better and thus be able to reduce tensions between us (always worthwhile when we have thousands of nukes on each side).
But we’ll never know unless we try with baby steps first - and this is what I believe that Trump is trying to do. I know that under Hillary, this wouldn’t have been possible, that tensions would have ratcheted upwards, which would have helped no one except defense contractors and the intelligence community (and, frankly, there’s enough else to keep them both plenty busy, considering China, Iran and the whole Arab terrorism thing).
Bravo to Trump and our intelligence services on this one. They’ve created a bunch of good will, and I expect that there will be more forthcoming from us, and a fair amount coming from the Russians. While I would be VERY careful with them, I think that it will lead to much better things over time.
Now that is really nice.
Obama would have helped the muzzies.
Will he be exposed so that even his followers are turned over?
Merry Christmas Freepers!
Russia's in much worse shape than we are when it comes to domestic Islamic terrorism. Muslims are about 1% of the US population, in Russia it's probably closer to 10%. Among Western European countries, I think that only North African-infested Belgium and France have anything close to this.
Thank you for sharing your story about your family. It sounds horrific and yet another testimony to the evils of Communism and “progressive” thought.
I don’t know a whole lot about Russia, but I think we have a hard time understanding Russian attitudes in this nation and that’s why we always seem to step in it when dealing with them.
They have a long, long history that is complex and if we attempt to use our Western democratic notions as a filter, then we will never get them. That’s not being apologetic, by the way, as we have to stand strong for OUR beliefs and values; it’s just what we need to keep in mind if we want to know how to successfully relate to Russia.
IMHO.
I’m leaning strongly toward collision with the Russians, on a national level. We have shared interests in defeating the global oligarchy and their tools.
Everyone wants to hate Putin for allegedly killing some journalists, yet I can relate to the urge...
What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
I haven’t been here long, but when I hear people moaning about the globalist “human rights” bullshít, especially in regards to the hijab wearing douche bags, I just write them off as another domestic enemy.
Yes! Go Putin! That’s why he is allied with Iran so strongly and refuses to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
He funds the building of Christian churches abroad but only in exchange for Russian military bases to operate in Syria.
All these Middle East adventures he enjoys while his own country’s economy is in shambles.
He bans “gay” propaganda, only to have the HIV rate in his country spiral to a tipping point on his watch. (Russia has the fastest growing epidemic in Europe.)
He touts “Christian values” and Orthodoxy but just last week in his annual press conference voiced his continued commitment to keep abortion legal. (This even as Russia’s catastrophic demographic crisis looms and the birth rate is once again declining.)
And what say you about the kleptocratic Islamic republics he has fostered within Russia? Chechnya? Ran by Putin’s buddy Kadyrov and funded to the tee by Moscow as the rest of Russia’s non-Islamic outlying regions suffer. And Dagestan?
ISIS has had field days galore recruiting from those places. There are more Russian-speaking foreign ISIS recruits than from any other country...
This is just tip of the iceberg.
Two faced Vladdy Poots deceiving even you I see. He is an anti-christ to the core. And shame on “Christians” for refusing to be discerning. Really?
- former Russia expat
See post 30
These idiot “journalists” are wearing black in Burma so they can be in solidarity with their ISIS comrades.
These idiots think they’re entitled like any other liberal here in the USA. They aren’t.
I suppose you approve of Islamic terrorism in Russia since you hate Putin so much?
“Thank you for sharing your story about your family. It sounds horrific and yet another testimony to the evils of Communism and “progressive” thought.”
1) They will ALWAYS spy on you for both national defense and industrial reasons...so just have the necessary resources to deal with that.
2) They are primarily interested in one thing above all else - feeling secure that they will be left alone for a long time. So long as you don’t really threaten them, you’re OK.
3) They despise weakness - so DO have a strong national defense with large amounts of equipment (they love large numbers, and respect it in others).
4) Don’t knife them in the back.
5) Understand that part of their national psyche is to deal rather brutally with dissent, with criminals and with threats to their nation. We’re not going to change them, so we should not harbor any illusions about doing so, nor waste any resources in that area. They are different, that’s all.
These are relatively simple facts/rules, which any person SHOULD be able to figure out. I would think that any President who doesn’t have his head in the clouds (or up his rectum) would know and understand this, and certainly he will find large numbers of people who can give similar advice backed up with a lot more facts and analysis.
Russia is not Vladimir Putin, any more than the USA was Barack Obama for eight years.
“He bans “gay” propaganda, only to have the HIV rate in his country spiral to a tipping point on his watch. (Russia has the fastest growing epidemic in Europe.)”
As for the rest of your post, that comes under the heading of “Putin is looking out for his nation’s interests...and we’d be pretty damned stupid if we not only didn’t know that, but also didn’t do the same for ourselves.” Putin is wearing big-boy pants, and does many things that we don’t like. So what - it doesn’t mean that we can’t deal with him, only that we can’t trust him as far as we can throw an elephant.
Oh please don’t put words in my mouth. I have lived in Russia and the metro attack (if you remember, from last April) happened at my home station just after I left the country.
I am saying Putin is not a good man. But hey we allied with Stalin against the Nazis right?
Poor Yevgeny - no Club Gitmo shirt for you!
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(he'd probably want one, given how he'll be treated by the FSB)
I’m a German, born here... My grandfathers and great grandfathers were bombing you and the English (who I hate to this very day).
I don’t give a flying intercourse if you lived in Russia or not... it has nothing to do with killing Muslims.
Tell that to Putin who allies and funds the Muslims. As in Iran, Chechnya, and elsewhere.
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