Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that it dismantled a terrorist cell in the Nizhny Novgorod region that was allegedly working with handlers based in Poland.
Seven members of an unspecified “international terrorist organization banned in Russia” were detained on suspicion of recruiting individuals from the local Muslim community, the Interfax news agency cited the FSB’s press service as saying.
The group was said to espouse a militant ideology “aimed at violently seizing power and establishing a so-called global caliphate.”
Video published by state media showed FSB agents making arrests in cars, on the street and inside apartment buildings. In one video, an agent displayed a phone showing a blurred number starting with Ukraine’s country code +380.
FSB officers said they seized “propaganda materials, communications equipment and electronic media used to support terrorist activities.”
The two suspected leaders of the terrorist cell face criminal charges, while the remaining members will be deported to their home countries, according to the FSB. It did not provide further details.
In a separate announcement earlier Monday, the FSB said it had shut down a large-scale illegal weapons manufacturing network. Authorities said they closed 62 underground arms workshops and arrested 172 people across 58 regions in March and April.
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