MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. Two leaders and seven activists of the international terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (outlawed in Russia) have been detained by officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and Interior Ministry in Moscow and Chelyabinsk, a FSB spokesman told TASS on Tuesday.

Among those detained are Russian citizens and nationals of Central Asian countries. "At the instruction of the organization’s foreign envoys, these men engaged in the activities of propagating the terrorist organization’s ideology in Russia with an aim of violent toppling of the current authorities," the spokesman said. "At their secret meetings, they recruited local Muslims and labor migrants living in Russia."

The searches of their places of residence yielded prohibited Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami propaganda materials, means of communications and electronic storage media they used for terrorist activities. Criminal cases were opened against those detained.