MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service (FSB) acting together with the Russian Investigative Committee and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service has stopped the activities of a group of Russian citizens financing the activity of the Caucasus Emirate and ISIL terrorist organizations banned in Russia via the Internet and the Telegram messenger.
"More than 6 million rubles were raised as charitable donations. The funds were transferred abroad for committing terrorist crimes in Syria," a spokesman for the FSB public relations center told Interfax.
The spokesman said that over 100 supporters of the Global Caliphate idea were aligned to the group. "These include persons who perpetrated an armed attack on Nalchik, which was launched by odious terrorist Shamil Basayev in 2005," the spokesman said, adding that two persons were taken into custody.
According to the FSB, the group was operating in Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Ingushetia, Tatarstan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, and the Tyumen region.
"The clandestine center, which guided the financing of terrorism, was seated in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Reports were sent to foreign coordinators. A counterterrorist operation was launched in Kabardino-Balkaria to investigative the case and to detain the suspects," the spokesman said.
Books which are federally listed as extremist materials, ten mobile devices containing instructions from terrorists, 60 bank cards, $6,000 in cash, and reports on the transfer of funds for foreign operations were found and seized during searches of the suspects' homes.
Investigative and operative procedures continue.
Meanwhile, Russian Investigative Committee Chairperson Svetlana Petrenko told Interfax that the agency's Moscow branch had indicted a 25-year-old detainee (whose name is not disclosed) on counts of organizing the financing of terrorism.
"A detective of the Russian Investigative Committee's Moscow branch acting together with officers of several FSB directorates has searched over 90 homes of individuals who interacted with defendants in this case," Petrenko said.
Criminal cases have been opened against some individuals, including in Moscow, she said.
An informed source told Interfax on September 25 that a brother and sister had been detained in Kabardino-Balkaria on counts of financing terrorism.
The Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on counts of aiding and abetting terrorism, as a result of which a 25-year-old man living in Kabardino-Balkaria and his 30-year-old sister were detained, the source said.
They are facing from 15 to 20 years of imprisonment or even a life sentence.