ISIS terrorist group, which is banned in Russia, is losing its forces and territories, but even its disappearance will not be a definitive victory, since the creators of ISIS are still interested in the functioning of a large-scale terrorist organization, the head of the Center of Prospective Studies Sergeu Masulov said, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza.
First of all, he drew attention to the succession of militant groups in the Middle East. "First there was Al-Qaeda, then Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), then AQI moved to Syria and became two groups banned in the Russian Federation - ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the latter became the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. As for ISIS - at the moment, it has weakened in terms of territory, although the influx of human resources does not stop. 30 thousand militants have been destroyed, but another 50,000 terrorists have joined the group from the West. Territorially, ISIS has withered, the main regions it still controls more or less are Raqqa and Mosul, which are about to fall, and Deir-ez-Zor, which is surrounded," the expert noted..
But it does not mean that ISIS will cease to exist completely. "In the worst case, a new structure will emerge, since there is a direct interest in the existence of such a terrorist organization. There is no need to wait for a fundamental change in the situation with terrorism, because a number of forces are interested in it. I think that Marxist and neo-Marxist concepts have long been irrelevant, and projects that imply interference in the natural course of things are now on the agenda. The war of projects is only developing, which means that terrorist groups will be used as their instruments," Sergey Masaulov believes.
"This means that national states need to react very precisely to this situation - to maintain normal relations with the neighbors, while preserving the national sovereign statehood. The fact is that a threat arises from negative relations. It is necessary to keep balance with other states, only then it will be possible to achieve the result on the world stage," the head of the Center of Prospective Studies emphasized.
Among such threats, he called the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "This is an absolute danger and a constant threat, as at any moment one can commit a provocation and achieve an unstable situation that threatens not only the internal balance, but also state structures in the region," the expert noted.
Speaking about Kyrgyzstan's opposition to the spread of ISIS, he reported that 710 people had left the republic to fight for the group, about 40 of them are dead and some returned. "In Kyrgyzstan, there are legislative bases for those working with returnees from ISIS: they find out what they did there, whether they did things violating the law, and then they get what they deserve. Most of them are simply tested and continue to live in the republic. Of course, they are under control," Sergey Masaulov said.
