YEKATERINBURG, October 30. /TASS/. French intelligence services may be involved in an extremist ring, whose organizers have recently been detained in several Russian regions. The group is accused of distributing extremist content and inciting violence among prisoners in penitentiaries and penal colonies, law enforcement agencies informed TASS.

Earlier, the Investigative Committee's office in the Sverdlovsk Region announced the detention of suspects in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk, Arkhangelsk, and the Krasnoyarsk Region as part of criminal proceedings launched over the establishment of this extremist ring.

Investigators revealed that an Internet group was formed in 2023 to disseminate content via social networks aimed at inciting social hatred and enmity against specific groups of citizens and law enforcement officers.

According to TASS sources, several channels across various social networks were utilized for this purpose. The content posted by moderators typically provoked animosity, often on religious grounds. As a result, extremist prisoners, the intended audience, engaged in assaults on other inmates, filming these violent incidents and sharing the footage with the channel moderators.

"French intelligence services, through a network of individuals operating in Russia, established this extremist movement and appointed their proxy, Roman Rugevich, to lead the operation. Rugevich, currently in France, is seeking political asylum there. This is one of the tools employed by foreign secret services to exert influence over the Russian penitentiary system," the source stated. Extremist convicts reportedly assaulted other inmates, even targeting those in hospital wards for treatment.

In the Sverdlovsk Region alone, law enforcement has documented at least six incidents linked to this criminal activity by the extremist ring. Criminal proceedings have been initiated under articles 116 and 321 of the Criminal Code, which address the disorganization of activities in institutions providing isolation from society.

All detained members of the undercover cell arrested across Russia served as moderators and managed the group's information resources.

"Their communication with the main handler, Rugevich, was facilitated through the messaging app Telegram. They were subsequently contacted by phone and recruited, with French intelligence providing methodological support. In most cases, radical religious ideologies and the banned AUE (Prisoner’s Criminal Unity) movement were leveraged to engage convicts in extremist activities," the sources added.