The spreading of Daesh influence is one of the main challenges facing the international community. Recently, experts of the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies (RISS) presented a book titled ‘ISIS: the Threat to International Security’, providing a complex analysis of the phenomenon, starting from the genesis of Daesh’s appearance to the role of the US in its creation and ending with the influence of the group in Arab countries, where attempts to establish a caliphate are bein made. Special attention is paid to the positions of regional leaders toward Daesh and the situation in the post-Soviet republics, where there is a possibility of destabilization. The book also suggests recommendations on preventing the spread of radical Islam in Russia.
Yevgeny Biryukov, senior researcher of the RISS, reminds: “There was the collapse of Soviet Union, there have been several wars in Yugoslavia, which resulted in the fact that this unified country collapsed in the interests of certain foreign countries. Iraq was bombed in 1998. The occupation of Iraq took place in 2003. A NATO contingent entered Afghanistan in 2001. The collapse of Sudan, the collapse of Ethiopia, and in general, events in Ukraine and Syria, those are all actions of one chain. The Arab revolutions can also be added here.”
Experts of the RISS have entered into polemics with foreign scientists. “Right now there are few studies on ISIS in Russia, but in the English language there is a huge amount of research, and we believe that the way American scientists present this problem is a deliberate distortion, and we are entering into disputes with them in absentia. We state that Daesh is not an independent phenomenon, and Daesh acts in the interests of foreign countries. It should be noted that in 2006 the so-called new or 'bloody' maps of the Middle East of the Pentagon's Colonel Peters, where he divided the states of the Middle East, became widespread. And there was such a state, Sunnistan, which operated in parts of Syrian and Iraqi territories. And then, in 2014, Daesh occupied almost exactly this area, which was assigned for that state,” Biryukov says.
According to him, “in 1993, in his book 'The Grand Chessboard', Brzezinski wrote that the United States will lead the process of Islamization and will contribute to the spread of radical Islam. The same thing was already written by academician Primakov in his book, 'Years in Big Politics'. Also, various sources indicate that about 32 thousand people are fighting in Daesh, and the maximum figure is up to 80 thousand. There are references to the CIA in various other sources. But until 2011 the Syrian army consisted of 215,000 people, it is one of the most combat-ready in the Middle East, it is a combat army, which has repeatedly participated in combat operations. That is why such a situation is impossible, that an equipped, trained army of 215 thousand people cannot resist a number of terrorists, which is significantly less than it.”
According to the RISS experts, sources of income of Daesh are not only oil, but also smuggling of sulfur, phosphorus, cement, gas, textile production and exports of equipment from the occupied territories.
Speaking about a threat to the post-Soviet space and Russia, Biryukov notes: “Back in 2002 the Americans developed the concept of the Greater Middle East. It was designed for several decades and included the full transformation of the region. But it is less known that in 2005 there was also the concept of Greater Central Asia. And as part of the US concept, not only former post-Soviet republics of Central Asia, but also Afghanistan, were merged into a single geopolitical entity. A unified strategy of destabilization is implemented in many countries. Terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Mali, Malaysia, the post-Soviet space, Russia, Syria, Libya, Tunisia are links in one chain. A single strategy is implemented, and it is a danger to the national security of Russia.”
