"The Russian Federal Security Service, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, caught red-handed five members of an organized criminal group operating under the coordination of a citizen of Ukraine ... the criminal group, acting in the interests of a foreign customer, took steps to acquiring, bypassing legal prohibitions and restrictions, 1 kilogram of the cesium-137 isotope for $3.5 million in order to smuggle the radioactive substance from Russia abroad to be used to the detriment of Russian interests during the special military operation," the FSB said in a statement.
The cesium-137 isotope was planned to be used for provocations with the use weapons of mass destruction in order to discredit Russia if exported, the statement read.