Over a thousand Russians are fighting in Iraq and Syria in the ranks of the Islamic State (ISIS), says Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. Citizens of Russia, Central Asia, Western Europe and the US have been recruited by the organization. Varvara Karaulova, a student of the prestigious Moscow State University, has recently been detained on the Turkish-Syrian border attempting to join ISIS, Kommersant reports.
Boris Dolgov, leading research associate of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reminded that ISIS leaders had been declaring their plans to liberate Chechnya and form the Islamic State of the North Caucasus. In the expert's opinion, about 2,500-3,000 Russians have joined ISIS. The ideology is attractive due to its Sharia underpinnings.
Dolgov believes that the ideology should be the main target of counter-terrorism efforts. Muslims need to be informed about the true intentions of ISIS that contradict the rules of Islam.
Vladimir Lepekhin, director of the EurAsEC Institute, opined that some Russians were susceptible to extremist propaganda as a strategic line rooting from the Soviet system of values, patriotism. The values are manifested in the form of freedom, democracy, human rights. People search for the values in the Middle East, Asia Minor, explains the analyst. Russia is a concentration of cultural, religious and ethnic groups. When an Orthodox Christian or Islamic culture spreads, it is normal and natural, according to the expert. Untraditional ideas may have a destructive impact.
