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Russian Security Services Arrest 12 People For Promoting Extremism | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation announced that it had arrested 12 citizens who are suspected of recruiting for the ranks of terrorist groups. According to a statement that it issued on Wednesday, the Russian security services said that “Russian Interior Ministry employees, in collaboration with the Federal Security Service, have arrested 12 people in the city of Moscow and its suburbs. These people are leaders and activists in a terrorist organisation.”

The statement did not disclose the nationalities of those arrested whilst some sources pointed out that the majority of those arrested are citizens of the former Soviet republics. Neither did the statement mention the name of the terrorist organisation which the detainees worked for. It only pointed out that “preliminary information indicates that the detainees were running sessions to promote the recruitment of citizens for an extremist organisation that is banned in Russia” which is thought to be ISIS.

The Russian News Agency TASS quoted on Wednesday a Russian security service source who said that Russian intelligence agents had arrested 25 citizens who are accused of being involved in terrorist activities and colluding with terrorists. The arrests were made during a large scale security operation that covered dozens of sites in Moscow and its suburbs.

In a related matter, Moscow city court yesterday held a new session on the case of the young Russian university student Varvara Karaulova (Alexandra Ivanova) who went missing during the summer of this year. It later came to light that she had joined ISIS in Syria after she was recruited by a young man whom she later married via the internet.

In yesterday’s session, the prosecutor said that Karaulova continued online conversations with the person who recruited terrorists for ISIS and that this happened under surveillance. In addition to this, she added drawings into the chats (written conversations) that they had which she had not used previously. Through her use of the drawings, she warned the person that she was talking to that she was under surveillance. The prosecutor added that the person who was recruiting for the terrorist organisation and Russian security agents realised the significance of those drawings.