The arrests of members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir are not linked to a recent series of explosions in Crimea, which rocked a military base and damaged infrastructure there yesterday. “They are all being held. The terrorists’ activities were coordinated, as one would expect, from the territory of the terrorist state of Ukraine,” Sergei Aksionov, the official, told Telegram. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which wants to restore control over the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. Aksyonov said the suspects were members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia. An FSB statement did not say whether the arrests were linked to explosions on Tuesday at a base in Dzhankoi in northern Crimea and last week at a Russian military base in western Crimea, where satellite photos showed eight Russian warplanes had been destroyed. However, it cited Dzhankoi, along with the city of Yalta, as the two locations where the alleged cell had been “neutralized”. On Tuesday, Russian authorities blamed saboteurs for the explosions in Dzhankoi. The FSB said the cell was recruiting local Muslims and accused it of terrorist activity.
