Dramatic footage showed evidence of gun battle between the FSB – Russia‘s successor to the KGB intelligence agency – and alleged jihadists some 235 miles from where England play in Volgograd in June.
The scene was close to Saratov and came as Vladimir Putin faces voters in Sunday’s Kremlin election, when he is expected to win a landslide for another six years as Russian president.
One gun-toting alleged terrorist is shown holding a pistol as he lies in the snow. However it was not initially clear how many alleged terrorists had been killed in the shootout.
Two bodies were visible in footage and pictures.
“The Russian Federal Security Service prevented a terrorist attack in the Saratov Region,” said a spokesman.
“The terrorist attack was plotted by an underground terrorist group.”
The statement went on: “On March 11, criminals, driving a car, opened fire on security personnel and in the armed clash they received deadly wounds.”
The alleged terrorists had an improvised explosive device with a capacity of some 6lbs of TNT.
TT and Makarov pistols were found at the scene and a self-made hand grenade.
Saratov is the birthplace of football billionaire Roman Abramovich.
It is 215 miles from Saransk, a host city, and 235 miles from Volgograd – where England kick off their World Cup campaign against Tunisia on 18 June.
In February, the FSB announced the killing of an Isis member preparing an attack in Nizhny Novgorod, a city where England play Panama on 24 June in the qualifying games.
In 2017 alone, the Russian security services foiled more than 60 terrorism-related plots, including 18 attacks, according the organisation’s chief, Aleksandr Bortnikov.