A new generation of terrorists will speak Russian

Chechen militants in an "Islamic state" / Screen capture [19659003] Western understanding of Islamic terrorism is very outdated and dangerous. For decades, officials have focused on attacks. and the people of the Middle East were organized

Today, however, the real threat comes from the territories located in the east. At the level of the former Soviet republics and beyond, activists who have previously created local problems are attracting more and more attention to the West. Overseas 19659004] Read also The Flood of Foreign Terrorist Activists in Iraq, Libya and Syria Stalled – UN

For a while, the terrorist threat in the Middle East has gradually declined. Even during the war against "Islamic State", Russian-speaking militants from the countries of the post-Soviet state have already committed numerous attacks on the West. For the most part, there was only one terrorist attack. For example, in 2017, trucks were driving pedestrians to New York and Stockholm. In both cases, Uzbek drivers sat behind the wheel. But there were more complex planned attacks. In 2016, a Russian suicide bomber made an explosion in Istanbul. And in 2017, in the same Turkish city, Uzbeks attacked a discotheque.

There are several reasons why anti-Western terrorism from post-Soviet territory intensifies. First of all, the jihadists of the Middle East have been too busy with local wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in recent years to go somewhere. And the lure of "Islamic State" has dissipated after an almost total defeat in Iraq and Syria.

At the same time, the wars in the Middle East transformed militants in Russian-speaking regions that had previously fought repressive governments against international terrorists. In 2017, at least 8,500 fighters from post-Soviet countries traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the "Islamic State". This experience gave many jihadists the first combat experience against US and NATO troops and left them with the desire to take revenge. Therefore, their future operations will target the West

For example, Ahmed Chataev, who staged an attack at Istanbul airport, planned to strike in the West while he was an activist in Iraq and Syria. His telephone conversation with another Russian-speaking terrorist, Islam Atabyev, published last year, indicates that the two men wanted to collect intelligence data on consulates and American restaurants frequented by Americans in Turkey and Georgia. The same dynamic is evident in more eastern regions, where jihadists from the former Soviet republic who have been tried in combat can travel more freely than Arabs with passports from Iraq, Syria or Yemen. .

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The persecution of Muslims in Asia is intensifying. And that plays in the hands of terrorist groups. In Bangladesh, for example, Caucasian groups helped members of the Rohingya Muslim minority who escaped from Myanmar prison. The Russian-speaking leader of one of the groups who fought in Syria said that he planned to send several people of his people to Bangladesh. Such links can give a boost to the emergence of local terrorists. The persecuted Rohingya home may convince them of being on the threshold of a world war against Islam.

In the years to come, the terrorist threat from Russia will increase. After the fall of "Islamic State", Russian-speaking terrorists will return home to post-Soviet countries, then move to Europe more freely than militants in the Middle East. The cogent repression of the governments has made religious Muslims from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan a target for radicals who are seeking who to recruit. Several popular Middle Eastern sheikhs, including the Saudi religious Abulaziz al-Tarife, now have an important Russian-speaking audience on social networks.