Today the international society has faced the reality of a new threat in the Middle East – the terrorist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. In recent months it strengthened its positions in Iraq and began providing state factions such as taxation and law-enforcement. Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed experts on the threat from the ISIL for the region, Russia, and its neighbors.
Yevgeny Satanovsky, the president of the Middle East Institute, notes that the threats of the Islamic State are absolutely real for Russia and the North Caucasus. He says that there are more than 2000 natives of Russia, including Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Dagestan, among the terrorists. These people failed to capture power in the North Caucasus, and now they will try to revenge.
According to Andrey Baklanov, the deputy chairman of the Association of Russian diplomats, the existence of the ISIL negatively influences the political and ideological atmosphere of the Middle East. First of all, terrorists imposed on the Muslims an idea that Islam supporters have two main enemies – Russia and the U.S. Secondly, there is a threat that terrorists can move from one region to another. Thirdly, the ISIL propaganda presents caliphate as the only form of statehood for Islamic countries.
Vyacheslav Matuzov, a political scientist and Oriental scientist, thinks that there is a threat for Russia, as the United States will try to direct the ISIL to the Caucasus.
