MOSCOW — Russian authorities detained one of the people suspected of organizing the St. Petersburg metro terrorist attack two weeks ago, TASS, the Russian government-owned news agency, reported Monday.
He was identified as Abror Azimov Akhralovich and was arrested just west of Moscow. Akhralovich was arrested in the city’s Odintsovo district, TASS reported
“At the moment, Abror Azimov has been brought to the Russian Investigative Committee for investigative activities,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Russia said, according to TASS.
14 dead, many injured
Fourteen people were killed and dozens more were injured on April 3 when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in the city’s metro system.
Authorities identified the bomber as Akbarjon Djalilov, 22. Kyrgyz authorities said he is a Russian national born in the nation of Kyrygrzstan, the former Soviet Republic in central Asia.
Djalilov’s DNA had been matched to a bomb left at a second metro station defused by authorities.
Eight others had been arrested in connection with the attack not long after the incident took place, authorities said.
The FSB said the suspect was born in 1990 and trained the suicide bomber, according to TASS. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Russia was once a hotspot for terror attacks, but the country has experienced relatively few in recent years.
Many of the previous attacks were aimed at progressing separatist causes in Russia’s North Caucasus, including movements in Chechnya and Dagestan.
In December 2013, a suicide bombing at a train station in Volgograd killed at least 16 people, in an attack linked to a network in Dagestan. The following day, in the same city, a suicide bombing on a trolley bus killed 14 people.
In 2010, two female suicide bombers linked to the Chechen insurgency blew themselves up at two Moscow metro stations, killing 40. In 2002, Chechen rebels killed 170 hostages in a theater in the capital, Moscow.
