ISIS looks to be making a concerted effort to recruit Russian-speaking militants. Commenting on the situation, Colonel General Andrei Novikov at the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorist Center said: “According to experts, the Russian language is becoming, alongside Arabic and English, the main language of Daesh propaganda.” The colonel backed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls for greater international co-operation against ISIS. The Islamist extremist group increased its Russian-language propaganda efforts in the summer, and it is estimated that several thousand fighters from Russia and Central Asian states have gone to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS.
ISIS looks to be making a concerted effort to recruit Russian-speaking militants. Commenting on the situation, Colonel General Andrei Novikov at the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorist Center said: “According to experts, the Russian language is becoming, alongside Arabic and English, the main language of Daesh propaganda.” The colonel backed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls for greater international co-operation against ISIS. The Islamist extremist group increased its Russian-language propaganda efforts in mid-2015, and it is estimated that several thousand fighters from Russia and Central Asian states have gone to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS.