MOSCOW (AFP): Russia’s powerful FSB security service on Tuesday announced the detention of almost 40 people, including minors, that it said backed “Ukrainian terrorist” groups across dozens of regions.
Moscow regularly arrests people it says are acting on Ukraine’s orders, often for sabotage, and has banned criticism of its offensive against its smaller neighbor.
“Thirty-nine radicals aged 14 to 35, supporters of Ukrainian terrorist organizations banned in Russia, were detained,” the FSB said in a statement.
It accused them of “inciting children and adolescents to commit violent acts against representatives of state bodies, classmates and teachers.”
It said, “nine minors” were involved in preparing “armed attacks on educational and religious institutions” and that they were communicating with “Ukrainian handlers” online.
The FSB said that with the interior ministry it had “carried out investigative and preventative measures in 79 regions.”
It published a video of armed FSB officers detaining teens and going into what looked like family homes.
“Don’t be scared, it’s the Federal Security Service,” one officer said as a woman – whose face is blurred – opens the door of a wooden house with FSB employees going in to conduct a raid.
In another scene, an officer accompanies a person who looks like a young teen, walking through a living room with toys in it towards a police van.
Russia has orchestrated a massive crackdown on dissent since the Ukraine offensive.
