14 Detained Outside Moscow for Preparing Fake Passports for Daesh Militants

Fourteen individuals were detained outside Moscow for preparing fake passports for Daesh militants, whose activities are prohibited in numerous countries including Russia and the United States, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The FSB and Interior Ministry were able to stop the international criminal group, which was not only preparing documents for those from Russia and other former Soviet republics to fight among the ranks of Daesh in Syria, but also for those returning to Russia to carry out terrorist and extremist acts, as well as illegal migration.

“After collecting the needed base of evidence in the criminal case, … a complex of operative military and investigation operations were carried out in the capital’s region to suppress the activities of the group revealed by detaining 14 of its members ‘red-handed,’” the FSB said in a statement.

Fears are that Russia’s proximity to the war-torn Middle East and its sizable Muslim community could make it a potential recruiting ground for radical Islamist networks. The Russian Interior Ministry said last December that up to 2,000 Russian nationals were estimated to be involved in Daesh-related military activities.

Since September 2015, the Russian Aerospace Forces have been operating in Syria, attacking the Daesh and the Nusra Front jihadist groups positions at the request of the Syrian government in Damascus.