More countries have joined the United States in warning their citizens in Russia to avoid crowds over an imminent terrorist threat, shortly after Russian officials said they thwarted an attempted attack on a Moscow synagogue.
A security alert issued on Thursday warned that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was "monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours."
The British Embassy in Moscow quickly shared the warning, while advising U.K. nationals to avoid "all travel to Russia." By Friday, at least six other nations had joined in warning their citizen about the alleged threat—including Canada, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, Latvia and the Czech Republic.
While the nature of the threat was non-specific, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement hours earlier that it had prevented an attempt by an Islamic State terror cell "to commit a terrorist act against one of the Jewish religious institutions in Moscow," according to Russian state media agency TASS.
"Active search measures established that they were militants of an international terrorist organization preparing an attack on the congregation of a synagogue with the use of firearms," the FSB statement reads.
"During an operation to detain them, the terrorists put up armed resistance to Russian FSB staff and as a result were neutralized by return fire," it continues.
It was unclear whether or not the purported synagogue attack plan was tied to the threat that the U.S. embassy claimed soon after.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Newsweek that there was "no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas" but declined comment on any potential connection, pointing out the department's policy of avoiding the disclosure of information on intelligence matters.
Newsweek reached out for comment the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry via email on Friday.
The U.S. embassy in Russia has frequently warned American citizens to leave the country since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Most of the countries who joined the U.S. in warning of extremist attacks this week have previously made similar suggestions for their citizens to leave Russia and avoid traveling there as the war continues.
This week's warning prompted several Putin allies in Russia to launch evidence-free conspiracy theories claiming that the U.S. and U.K. were planning to commit terror attacks in Russia and blame the attacks on another entity.
"The USA and Britain have even stopped hiding that they are behind the terrorist attacks in Russia," a post on the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel RIA Katyusha reads.
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russian state-run media outlet RT, reportedly suggested that the U.S. and U.K. would be guilty of "complicity" in future terror attacks occurs in Russia if "specific information" is not "passed on" to the Kremlin.
Update 3/8/24, 6:52 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from a U.S. State Department spokesperson.
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