The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has detained seven people from Central Asia on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg.
In a July 28 statement, the FSB said the detainees are suspected of plotting attacks on railway trains and public sites in Russia's second-largest city.
The statement did not name the suspects or specify their citizenship.
Rights groups say Russian law enforcement authorities sometimes target Central Asians and migrants from other mainly Muslim countries or regions of Russia without grounds.
Investigators say a bomb blast on a subway car in St. Petersburg on April 3 that killed 15 people was a suicide attack carried out by Akbarjon Jalilov, a 22-year-old Kyrgyz-born ethnic Uzbek man with Russian citizenship.
Ten suspects from Central Asia were arrested in St. Petersburg and Moscow in connection with the attack shortly afterwards.