US training terrorists to carry out attacks on Russia: Moscow's spy service

US recruited 60 militants to carry out terrorist attacks on Russia.

Moscow, Feb 13: The US military was grooming Islamist militants to attack Russia and the former Soviet Union, Moscow's foreign spy service claimed on Monday.

Foreign Intelligence Service has claimed that the US has hired 60 such militants from groups affiliated with Islamic State and al Qaeda and training at an American base in Syria, Reuters reported.

"They will be tasked with preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks against diplomats, civil servants, law enforcement officers and personnel of the armed forces," said the Foreign Intelligence Service, headed by known by an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

The development comes at a time when Russia stated that its troops have advanced 2 kms to the west in four days along Ukraine's frontline.

"Special attention is paid to attracting immigrants from the Russian North Caucasus and Central Asia," the SVR statement added. However, the agency did not reveal the intelligence behind its assertion and Reuters could not independently verify the claims.

Sergei Naryshkin is the head of the SVR, which was part of the Soviet-era KGB. He reportedly met CIA Director William Burns last year in Ankara.

Last week, President Joe Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has "already lost Ukraine" and that his country's aid to Kyiv is open-ended for now.

"Look, there's no way that Putin is going to be able to cope. He's already lost Ukraine," PBS NewsHour quoted him as saying in an interview. .

Biden continued, "He thought that if he invaded Ukraine, first of all, he'd get a welcome by every Russian speaker, they'd say, 'come on in,'"

"And secondly, he thought what would happen is that NATO would collapse. NATO would not do anything. They'd be afraid to act. Then he thought anyway, go down the line. None of that's happening," he added.

Russia and the US's relationship hit a new low since the Cold War era after Moscow waged war against Ukraine in February 2022.