From the Moscow Times today.

Several dozen police officers broke up a prayer meeting of about 200 Jehovah's Witnesses in southeastern Moscow and briefly detained 14 worshipers.

The Wednesday evening raid promises to raise new worries about a clampdown on minority religions at a time when the clout of the Russian Orthodox Church is increasing.

More than 30 police officers burst into the prayer meeting in a rented hall on Sovkhoznaya Ulitsa at around 9 p.m. and detained 14 organizers, Vasily Kalin, head of the managing committee of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, said Thursday.

Kalin said police told the worshipers that they were violating a 2004 ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow.