Nine members of a migrant assistance center have been detained on suspicion of helping undocumented Central Asian terrorists obtain legal status in Russia, the FSB press service has announced.
Last week, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested several suspected members of an Islamic State (IS) sleeper cell on the cusp of carrying out a suicide attack in St. Petersburg. A U.S.-Russian presidential phone call over the weekend suggested that the attack was foiled thanks to CIA intelligence.
On Friday, the FSB said it had shut down a group that helped undocumented migrants from Central Asia obtain legal status in Russia, “including supporters of international terrorist organizations.”
“These individuals’ illegal activities were carried out under the auspices of a so-called assistance center for migrants that provided legal advice on migration issues,” the FSB said in a statement.
Two labs for counterfeiting documents had been shut down, the security agency added. A number of passports, work permits, migration cards and other forms of identification and documents were confiscated.
IS is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
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