According to FSB, one of the issues in the fight against illicit trafficking of weapons is a growing demand for firearms manufactured from so-called weight-size mock-ups and non-military weapons with components identical to combat arms.
"Such weapons are used by underground gang members and organized criminal groups to commit serious and high-profile crimes: a series of killings of Moscow region residents by the so-called GTA gang in 2014, the killings of public figure Boris Nemtsov and member of the local government of Chereksky district in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic Kantemirov in 2015," the FSB said in a statement.
The security service noted an increase inflow of illicit supply of weight-size mock-ups from abroad to Russia, mostly from Ukraine. Such mock-ups can be turned into combat weapon in a handicraft way, FSB said.
On February 27, 2015, Nemtsov, who occupied a number of senior positions in the Russian government in the 1990s, and was an active opposition figure in the 2000s, was shot dead in downtown Moscow.
Five persons were detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder, namely Hamzat Bakhayev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, Shadid and Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev. The alleged mastermind of the murder, Ruslan Mukhudinov, has been arrested in absentia.
