The US Embassy in Moscow has urged its citizens to refrain from travels to Russia amid possible ter-rorist attacks in Moscow and Saint Petersburg over the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis.
“According to media sources, there have been threats of attacks against shopping centres, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened ten-sion along the Russian border with Ukraine,” the diplomatic mission said in a statement published on its official website on Sunday.
The embassy did not specify what sources it used to issue a notice, and made some recommenda-tions, including to monitor local and international media for updates, avoid crowds, keep in touch with friends and family, and mind the surroundings.
It also advised to stay alert in locations fre-quented by tourists and Westerners, review personal security plans, carry proper identification, including a US passport with a current Russian visa, and have evacuation plans that do not rely on US government assistance.
Commenting on the warning, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova asked whether the US diplomats shared with the relevant Russian law enforcement the information about planned terrorist attacks.
“If not, how to understand all this?” she ques-tioned on Sunday. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesper-son Dmitry Peskov said the US embassy informa-tion about possible terrorist attacks is being investi-gated.
“This is a very, very unusual practice, such pub-lications by diplomatic missions. We are looking into whether there were any signals from the Americans (about possible terrorist attacks) through the special services. I am currently unaware that such signals took place,” he told reporters at a daily briefing in Moscow on Monday.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Rus-sia is on the brink of invading Ukraine within “sev-eral days”.—Agencies
