FSB Raids Underground Armament Firms in 51 Federal Subjects

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 4 – The FSB has announced that it has raided underground armament firms in 51 federal subjects and detained 157 workers in 62 underground arms firms in Russia. Moscow is especially worried about such operations because they often convert legal weapons into illegal ones, a growing concern with the return of veterans from Ukraine.

            In the course of this operation, FSB officers seized 268 guns, including automatic weapons, artillery shells, grenades, and more than 140 kilograms (more than 300 pounds) of explosives. In many cases, the underground armories transformed legal weapons like hunting rifles into illegal automatic ones (stav.aif.ru/society/law/oruzheynye-masterskie-vyyavili-siloviki-na-stavropole-kchr-i-osetii).

            These raids, arrests, and seizures are part of Moscow’s effort to stem the increasingly violent crime wave that is now sweeping through the Russian Federation. (On that, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/07/organized-crime-has-risen-in-russia.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/04/illegal-arms-sales-possession-and-use.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/10/fsb-reports-arrest-of-48-more.html.)