MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Moscow confiscated more than 200,000 counterfeit DVDs worth over 40 million rubles ($1.3 million) from markets in the Russian capital during a three-week operation, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

Officers from the economic crimes department carried out raids across the city, halting the activities of several criminal groups.

"More than 20 criminal cases have been opened, under clauses... concerning individuals suspected in the organization and sale of pirated goods," said Filipp Zolotnitsky, head of the department's press service.

"Tens of searches were carried out, and more than 200,000 DVDs confiscated," he said.

Some of the disks involved recording movies from cinema screens. Zolotnitsky said copies of the animated movie "9," released in Russia on September 9, would be examined by experts to determine which cinemas were involved.

"If it is established that cinema staff made recordings from cinema screens, they will be held to account," he said.

Sales of pirated DVDs, CDs and computer software has long been a problem in Russia, with intellectual copyright protection one of the issues that the United States has raised in bilateral negotiations over Russia's WTO accession.

Russia called a halt to more than 15 years of talks on joining the World Trade Organization this summer to pursue joint membership with Belarus and Kazakhstan as part of their agreed customs union.