300 Muslims Detained After Raid From Russian Police

Moscow police detained 300 Muslims after President Vladimir Putin ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The 300 people, including 170 foreigners, were held at a Muslim prayer room in the capital, and police said Islamist literature had been confiscated, according to Radio Free Europe.

It is the third such raid targeting Muslim places of worship in Moscow or St. Petersburg this year, Reuters reported.

The “fight against corruption, crime and the insurgency has to be carried out harshly and consistently,” Putin told a meeting of security force officers, according to the radio station.