ISIS creates powerful system of ideological influence on youth

"Despite strong strikes, which are applied recently against international terrorism, it seeks to strengthen its activities under the ISIS banner in different regions of the world, including in Russia by replenishment of terrorist groups abroad and the bandit underground in Russia by a significant influx of young people," the Adviser to the Chairman of Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, Andrei Przhezdomsky, said.

According to him, more than 80% of the total number of members of illegal armed groups are young people, and the number of uneducated young people with no interests, which are unable to critically evaluate their surroundings, not versed in religion and taking the various religious tenets on faith, is increasing. "These people are no less dangerous than fully formed bandits. About 10% of terrorist contingent is made up of young women, girls. As a rule, they have only one motivation - a romanticization of 'heroes'-militants and playing a soldier's wife. Often they are disappointed girls like Varvara Karaulova. The involvement of children and adolescents in terrorist activities became a terrible phenomenon," Przhezdomsky said.

He noted that ISIS created a powerful system of ideological influence on young people: "The ideologists of international terrorism is carrying out the so-called media jihad. We are seeing a sharp intensification of the work of terrorists on the Internet. Youth receives information for the formation of their life stance mainly on the Internet, paying no attention to teachers and educators. The Internet created as a tool for communication, an integration of cultures and people, has become a terrorists tool. It is an ideal field providing free access, an unlimited audience, anonymity, efficiency, multimedia. The Internet made possible a terrorist self-education. The Internet has become a major recruiting tool".

The security services and law enforcement agencies are noting the emergence of new strategy and tactics in international terrorism activities. "Perhaps, the number of Russian nationals recruited to the ISIS terrorist group is decreasing under the influence of an active and powerful offensive of the Russian Air Force in Syria. In parallel, there has been a decline in replenishment of ISIS’s units from the North Caucasus, which requires ringleaders to transform their activities, structure them from abroad and create small gangs. The main principle is to fight right where they are. Now emissaries who used to come from Syria and Turkey now not only look for perpetrators of terrorist attacks, but also form sleeper cells that are to carry out terror attacks by a signal. Sometimes they act as coordinators and couriers. These groups are funded by means of electronic banking, credit cards are issued on nominees to perform specific tasks - a purchase of weapons, explosives, improvised explosive devices. If previously, extorting money from businessmen using so-called flash drives was the main source of financing, but now we are seeing a balance with foreign funding."