MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked US counterpart Donald Trump Sunday for the CIA's help in thwarting a planned attack in Saint Petersburg, the second time in a week that the leaders have exchanged praise.
Putin spoke by phone with Trump to convey his gratitude for intelligence supplied by the CIA which allowed Russia's FSB security service to break up a "terrorist cell" that was planning attacks in Russia's second city, the Kremlin said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
"The information received by the CIA was enough to detect, hunt down and arrest the criminals," the Kremlin said.
Putin also pledged that Russian security agencies would pass on any information received about terrorist threats to the United States and its citizens.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders confirmed on Twitter that the Putin and Trump spoke Sunday.
The FSB announced on Friday it had arrested seven members of an Islamic State group cell that had been planning a suicide bombing and "the killing of citizens" in crowded areas of Saint Petersburg on December 16.
Police confiscated a large number of explosives used to make homemade bombs, automatic rifles, munitions and extremist literature, it said.
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