Putin orders crackdown on Islamists, police detain 300 people
Source: Reuters
Putin orders crackdown on Islamists, police detain 300 people
MOSCOW | Fri Jun 7, 2013 2:42pm EDT
(Reuters) - Russian police rounded up 300 people at a Muslim prayer room in Moscow on Friday after President Vladimir Putin ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists ahead of next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Putin has put security forces on high alert to safeguard the Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which lies near to mainly Muslim southern provinces where Russia is battling an Islamist insurgency that has targeted Moscow.
"We must fight back hard against extremists who, under the banners of radicalism, nationalism and separatism, are trying to split our society," Putin said.
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Friday's raid, the third targeting Muslim places of worship in Moscow or St Petersburg this year, led to the detention of 300 people including 170 foreigners and the confiscation of Islamist literature to check for extremist content, Russian news agencies quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/07/us-russia-islamists-idUSBRE95613K20130607