Monday, July 13, 2015

Islamic State Launches Russian Language Recruitment Arm



MOSCOW – A report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty details the increase in efforts by Islamic State (IS) to reach its significant Russian speaking audience.



Furat.info is an amalgamation of two previous Russian language recruitment and propaganda outlets, FiSyria and ShamToday, which both maintained websites and social media accounts. They now redirect to Furat.



Hundreds of militants from former Soviet Union countries are thought to be fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq. Furat is thought to be controlled by Umar al-Shishani, an ethnic Chechen Kist from Georgia, now director of IS military operations in Syria.


IS has not officially recognised Furat, but analyst Aaron Y. Zelin from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy describes it as an “unofficial official account”.


Although IS Russian recruitment used to be centred on the Caucasus region, there is evidence of increasing support in central Asian countries such as Tajikistan.


IS has posted photos of a ‘media centre’ in Mosul that appears to be charged chiefly with subtitling Arabic videos into Russian, enabling not just the dissemination of its message abroad, but also to the large Russian speaking contingent already with the jihadists in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.


It has also produced videos in Russian, such as Unity Of The Mujahideen Of The Caucasus, which include interviews with militants from the Caucasus, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.



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