Russia raids supporters of Ukraine-run ‘neo-Nazis’

MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday it had conducted raids across the country on over 100 supporters of a neo-Nazi youth group it claimed was directed by Ukraine, as tensions soar over Kiev’s conflict with pro-Moscow separatists.

The FSB domestic intelligence agency said in a statement that it had conducted searches and probes against "106 supporters of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi youth group MKU". The FSB said the MKU was founded by a Ukrainian citizen named Yegor Krasnov, claiming he was "operating under the auspices of the Ukrainian security services".

Krasnov was instructing the MKU’s supporters to "commit terrorist acts and mass killings", the FSB claimed, adding that its agents had seized pistols, rifles, machine guns and tear gas during their raids.

The FSB has conducted several raids on the MKU group this year, detaining around 60 people, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Monday. The FSB’s announcement came less than two weeks after the security service said it had detained three Ukrainian spies, including one who had allegedly been planning a bombing. Ukraine’s SBU security service at the time denied the incident, saying the accusation was "fake" and part of a "hybrid war effort".