UPDATE: Official White House statement released just after 3:15pm ET:
According to the Kremlin, Russian president Vladimir Putin called President Trump Sunday to thank him for helping prevent a terrorist plot to bomb St. Petersburg.
Putin told Trump that the information provided by the CIA allowed Russian law enforcement agencies to track down and detain a group of suspects that was planning to bomb the centrally located Kazan Cathedral and other crowded parts of Russia’s second-largest city.
Putin asked Trump to pass along his gratitude to the CIA and the American intelligence agents who received the intelligence, the Kremlin said. It said that Putin also told Trump that “if Russian special services obtain any information on terrorist threats against the United States and its citizens, they will definitely and immediately pass it to American counterparts through partner channels.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the call, first announced by the Kremlin, in a tweet just before 12pm ET:
Can confirm @POTUS and President Putin spoke today. Readout from the WH coming shortly. https://t.co/EzRhqM52d8
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 17, 2017
As of 3:00pm ET, the White House still had not released an official readout.
ABC News has more specific information about the alleged terrorist plot:
News of the call comes after arrests in St. Petersburg of men accused of an ISIS-linked plot that would target the city's Kazan cathedral and other busy places.
Russia's security service said in a statement Friday it had arrested two men around Dec. 13 and 14 whom it said were in possession of a large quantity of weapons and explosives. The security service said the men had been planning to carry out a suicide attack on Saturday, Dec. 16, and to simultaneously detonate bombs at other locations.
Three other men were arrested in St. Petersburg on Dec. 14. They have been charged with illegal weapons possession and with theft or solicitation of nuclear materials or radioactive substances.
Sunday's call is the second in about four days between Putin and Trump. President Trump called Putin Thursday to thank him for saying nice things about him and the U.S. economy.
News of Sunday's call emerges amidst reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller legally obtained from the General Services Administration (GSA) tens of thousands of Trump transition team emails from at least a dozen accounts.
That cache includes emails the transition team had withheld intentionally.
Full story: Putin phoned Trump to thank him for CIA intel that foiled a planned terrorist attack in Russia, the Kremlin says (WaPo)
Putin calls Trump to thank him for shared intelligence information (NBC News)
Putin called Trump to thank CIA for tip on bomb threat (ABC News)