MOSCOW. Sept 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has confirmed the detention and arrest of Nariman Dzhelyalov, who is the deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars (designated as an extremist organization and banned in Russia), over an explosion at a gas pipeline in Crimea in August.
"A gas pipeline section was bombed near the populated locality of Perevalnoye in the Republic of Crimea on August 23, 2021. It was established during search and investigative operations that this act of sabotage was organized by a unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in the city of Kherson - by the so-called Tavria operative service with the help of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars organization, banned in Russia," the FSB press center told Interfax.
On September 4, FSB officers detained residents of Crimea: Dzhelyalov, the intermediary, and Asan Akhmetov and Aziz Akhmetov, who blew up the gas pipeline, it said.