"Police detained two employees of a car-wash station [in the town of Zheleznodorozhny] on suspicion of imitating provisional registration documents for foreigners," the source said.
The detained individuals, born in 1970 and 1981, are residents of Georgia and have lived in Moscow Region illegally, he added. Foreigners are obliged to register with the Interior Ministry when they arrive in the country and have to produce, like all Russians, identification documents when asked by police.
It is not unusual for police to detain people from the Caucasus area - millions flood into Moscow from the former "southern" Soviet republics in search of work - but news of the detention came a day after President Vladimir Putin called for a review of migration laws in the wake of an acrimonious spat with Georgia over an alleged espionage affair.
Authorities in Georgia charged four Russian officers with spying last Wednesday, but released them Monday to defuse what was becoming a mounting crisis. An enraged Moscow responded by suspending all transportation and mail links with Georgia, while police have also targeted against illegal immigrants and businesses suspected of maintaining links with the Georgian criminal underworld.
Moscow's authorities have also conducted a raid on gambling outlets this week, resulting in the closure of at least two casinos.
