OMON officers, along with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, arrived at a mosque in Elektrostal. They began checking the documents of those present.
A total of 575 people were checked, of whom 209 were foreigners and 16 were registered as illegal immigrants. Thirty-seven were taken to the local military registration and enlistment office.
As a reminder, in the fall of 2023, security forces repeatedly raided mosque parishioners in the Moscow region. In November, Novaya Gazeta Evropa reported on a raid on a mosque in Balashikha. It was reported that after traditional Friday prayers, masked men carrying weapons surrounded the mosque. One of them responded that they were from the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Everyone who left the building had their documents checked. According to the mosque's imam, some parishioners were also "offered to serve." A special bus was brought to the prayer house to transport the detainees to the military registration and enlistment office.
Last September, Dagestani MMA fighter Magomed Ismailov was fined 20,000 rubles for criticizing security forces over raids on a mosque. He was charged with inciting hatred or hostility toward a specific group of people. The charges stemmed from Ismailov's social media posts, in which he called law enforcement officers "masked bandits."
