In Moscow, reports from the Telegram news channel Baza describe a long-running pattern of robberies carried out by a group described as a band of armed foreigners. The series of attacks targeted individuals who were observed carrying large sums of money, and the incidents spanned several years, according to the channel’s coverage.
The channel identifies the core mix of participants as five men from Tajikistan and one man from Dagestan who reportedly joined forces to form a criminal gang. Their activities allegedly began with daytime or evening assaults on people believed to be carrying substantial cash, with each encounter ending in the theft of significant sums and, in one case, a violent act against a victim. In June 2021, one key episode involved the theft of 15 million rubles from a man on Volzhsky Boulevard, followed by a shooting in the leg during the same incident. Later that year, in September, the group is said to have robbed the founder of a travel agency on Aviamotornaya Street, amounting to 27 million rubles. A December 2023 incident reportedly saw the attackers taking 1 million rubles from a Kyrgyz citizen. The timeline portrays a campaign marked by large cash seizures and the use of force to intimidate victims.
Law enforcement investigations revealed that none of the gang members held registration in Moscow, a detail noted by authorities during the inquiry into crimes framed as robberies committed by a large group with the threat of violence. On August 29, several suspects connected to the case were detained as part of pre-trial detention procedures. The overall financial damage attributed to these offenses is cited as 43 million rubles, underscoring the scale of the operations and their impact on victims and the city’s security concerns. The detained individuals remain in custody as the case proceeds through the legal process.
The report also notes a historical reference to a separate criminal pattern: a youth gang that previously robbed five stores per week in Yekaterinburg. That earlier activity is mentioned to provide a broader context of organized street crime linked to groups with a penchant for rapid, high-volume thefts, though the two cases involve different locations and time frames. The evolving picture of criminal activity in Moscow included concerns about foreign nationals and organized groups while emphasizing the need for vigilance and effective law enforcement responses to protect residents and visitors who may encounter large-scale cash transactions or high-risk situations in the city.