Tag: Islamic State

Reports of precise numbers and accounts of tracking Islamist fighters as they leave Russia and return open up the question of how much the FSB controls these fighters, not only to gather intelligence but to perform missions.

Russia and Assad have ignored ISIS as part of their strategy, but that may have backfired today

Putin said Russia’s intervention in Syria was about combating terrorism. The facts say otherwise

Reports of the murder of a dozen border guards by jihadist terrorists at the Turkmen-Afghan border this summer and the seizure of $1.5 million from jihadists in the north of the country have shone light on the much-increased threat Turkmenistan faces from international terrorism.  Critics, including one dissident ex-MP, have expressed fears this could lead […]

Staunton, July 30 – “The Russian special services have controlled” the flow of Islamist radicals from Russia to Syria “from the very beginning,” according to Elena Milashina of Novaya Gazeta. They haven’t interfered, and sometimes have assisted it, seeing “a threat to state security only in those who try to return from this war.” In […]

Staunton, April 13 – Statements by Russian security officials and actions by siloviki [law-enforcers] including declaring a new counter-terrorism operation against an area of 4,500 square kilometers with some 368,000 people show that Dagestan has become “the northern front” of the Islamic State, according to Anton Bredikhin. In a study on the Kavkazoved portal, the […]

Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. Russian law-enforcers have killed a suspected Islamist militant in Dagestan who was said to have sworn allegiance to ISIS. UPDATES BELOW Special features: – Alexey Navalny […]

Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here, and see also our Russia This Week stories Ultranationalists Angry over ‘Capitulation’ of Minsk Agreement, ‘Anti-Maidan’ Launched by Nationalists, Cossacks, Veterans, Bikers, The Guild War – […]

Staunton, January 6 – Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine has largely disappeared from the front pages of Western newspapers and the lead stories of Western news broadcasts, a development reflecting the short attention span of many people but one that gives the Kremlin leader a victory because this lowers pressure on governments to oppose Russia’s […]