Russia, a new challenge. Accusations for Romania and Ukraine

The FSB claims to have discovered dozens of kilograms of explosives hidden in icons sent from Ukraine to Russia via several countries, including Romania. These explosives would have been destined for an address in Moscow.

The FSB found explosives hidden in the icons

Russia’s Putin regime’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims to have detained, together with the Federal Customs Service, a group of smugglers who were transporting explosives hidden inside Orthodox icons and liturgical utensils from Ukraine to Russia, the FSB’s press service said for TASS.

“In the process of inspecting a vehicle at the Ubylinka international car checkpoint (near the Latvian-Russian border in the Pskov region), FSB officers discovered foreign-made explosives that had been hidden inside a batch of Orthodox icons and liturgical utensils and were smuggled from Ukraine to Russia,” the FSB said.

What Russian authorities say they seized from the iconic vehicle

The explosives were discovered during an inspection of a shipment of icons and religious objects in the Pskov region on the border between Russia and Latvia. According to the information provided, the authorities seized up to 27 improvised explosive devices, camouflaged in icons, 70 kg of high-powered plastic explosive, 91 electric detonators and component parts for an RPG-7 rocket launcher, all discovered in a shipment of cargo originating in Ukraine, which crossed through Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on its way to Russia.

The explosives were supposed to reach Moscow

The FSB said all perpetrators and accomplices of the crime, including foreign nationals, would be prosecuted strictly under Russian law, without revealing specific identities or roles, according to the source cited.

Meanwhile, the driver of the inspected vehicle stated that the documents for the shipment indicated a final delivery address in Moscow.

“When I arrived in Romania for loading, I looked at the cargo at the warehouse. It consisted of liturgical utensils and icons. And then I headed to Russia, to Moscow, where the cargo had to be unloaded,” he allegedly said, in an FSB video.