Jihad on Cyrillic

The Islamic State Group*, banned in Russia, is increasingly recruiting supporters in our country and even launched a site in Russian

Photo: vk.com

On August 19, in Surgut, the second largest city in the Tyumen region of the Russian Federation, 19-year-old Arthur Gadzhiev tried to set fire to the Severny shopping center, then wounded seven random passers-by with an ax and knife. On August 28, two young people attacked police officers in Kaspiysk (Dagestan) with the help of cold weapons - one law enforcement officer died. The responsibility for both incidents almost immediately took over the Islamic State group*.

Unofficially official

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation that happened in Surgut has not yet officially classified as a terrorist attack. According to the official version, Gadzhiev is mentally ill. According to IG*, the name of the attacked young man - “Macud Surgut”, and he was in the ranks of the group. As evidence, the Isishamist radical distributed a video where a person in Balaklava and with an ax in his hands in Gadzhiev’s voice in Russian reads the oath of fidelity to the leader of IG* and calls for Muslims to attack people using the simplest murder tools. The six -minute video was posted into the network through the Furat Media media center - the Russian -language division of the propaganda apparatus of IG*. It begins with the “advertising” of IG*unbearable in its cruelty: a teenager (in appearance of 13-14 years) in pure Russian calls for terror and cuts off his head to an adult man.

Furat media center in the last few weeks, as the site of Radio Free Europe/Radio Freedom (RFE/RL) writes, in all likelihood, received an official or at least semi -official status. By quoting the analysts of the Washington Institute of Middle Eastern Policy Aaron Y. Zelin, the site clarifies that IG* did not make special statements about this, but nevertheless, Furat can be considered “unofficially official channel”. The expert recalls that the terrorist group spreads its propaganda messages in Arabic, English, Kurdish, French and Russian.

In addition, the BBC Russian Service clarifies that the Furat media center from time to time produced various kinds of products on behalf of IG*, starting in May 2015. A little later - more precisely, a month later - the leadership of the “Islamic state”* declared the North Caucasus its “province”. However, from the very beginning, the media center considered not only the population of the North Caucasus, but also Central Asia from the very beginning.

Furat acquired accounts on Facebook, Twitter and the Russian Network of VKontakte, where he publishes posts with the participation of either Russian -speaking fighters of a terrorist organization or speaking other languages, but with Russian subtitles. Its products, RFE/RL notes, appears more and more often, and it becomes more and more popular. In addition to recruiting potential militants on the Internet, the media center records CD with Russian subtitles: in a photo published on Facebook on July 1, 2017, a batch of such disks is just visible - “for brothers in the caliphate*”.

Furat acquired accounts on Facebook, Twitter and in the Russian Network VKontakte, where he publishes posts with the participation of either Russian -speaking fighters of a terrorist organization or speaking other languages, but with Russian subtitles

Almost professionals

Volunteers from the post -Soviet space, which replenished the ranks of IG*, began to actively share photos and videos in Russian in social networks since the end of 2012. However, if earlier all these publications were more like cheap amateur performances, now, RFE/RL testifies, the Russian-speaking “department” has already reached the scale of the Internet channel, which is quite “smooth” in quality, in other words, in fact, the semi-professional media. In addition, it is obvious that an increase in content also means the expansion of the “state”: the same spelling of subtitles in Russian most likely required the appearance of new employees in the media center, understanding, at least, oral Arabic and able to write in Russian.

The fact that the media center really exists is confirmed by some materials found by journalists on the network. For example, on July 1, 2017, someone Artem, a native of Kazakhstan, published a photo on the Internet with the signature “In the IG*media center”. In the picture, Artem himself and other militants are sitting in an office room. Computers and mobile phones are visible on the tables. Earlier, a photo from the same press center appeared on the Web, but signed by the Tajik militant Abu Daud (real name Parviz Saidrakhmonov). It is important that Saidrakhmonov, who is considered killed, was associated with some active preachers of IG*, for example, immigrants from Dagestan Akhmad Medinsky and Nadir Abu Khalid. Both of them, writes RFE/RL, are close to Abu Jihad, ethnic Karachais. The latter, in turn, is known for the fact that for several months he worked on the creation of the propaganda apparatus of IG* and, apparently, was one of the creators of Furat Media. In addition, Abu Jihad was the closest ally of Umar al-Shishani, the most famous native among the militants from the countries of the former USSR, killed in 2016.

On July 1, 2017, someone Artem, a native of Kazakhstan, posted a photo on the Internet with the signature “In the IG*media center”. In the picture, Artem himself and other militants are sitting in an office room. Computers and mobile phones are visible on the tables

From the site to the media center

Ash Shishani, nicknamed “Red General” in 2014, became the commander of the Northern Sector of IG*. The militant is half a Georgian (his real name is Tarkhan BatiRASHVILI), half a Chechen - originally from the village of Birkiani in the Pankisian Gorge of Georgia. There, Tarkhan Batihvili pass cattle in the mountains, then served in the Georgian army. Having become a minister of radical Islam, in 2013 he went to fight in Syria, where he founded his own terrorist cell “Jaish al-Mujahirin Val Ansar” ** (“Army of Migrants and Partisans”), which consisted of natives of the former USSR. To popularize his activities, Batirashvili created the site Fisyria (Fisyria.info). When, at the end of 2013, Ash Shishani swore allegiance to the “caliph” IG* Abu Bakru al-Baghdadi, the resource launched earlier began to promote the Islamic State gaining power*. Even then, as the BBC Russian Service writes, Fisyria positioned itself as the “official Internet site of the Syrian Mujahideen” in Russian. At the end of 2014, videos of militants based in the North Caucasus began to appear on the site, taking the oath of allegiance all the same al-Baghdadi.

In 2013, Batihvili went to fight in Syria, where he founded his own terrorist cell “Jaish Al-Mujakhirin Val-Ansar” ** (“Army of Migrants and Partisans”), consisting of natives of the former USSR. To popularize his activities, he created the FISYRIA site (Fisyria.info). When, at the end of 2013, Ash Shishani swore allegiance to the “caliph” IG* Abu Bakru al-Baghdadi, the resource launched earlier began to promote the Islamic State gaining power**

In addition, the FISYRIA website has brought accounts with it on social networks and its own YouTube channel. Another Russian -speaking propaganda resource advertising IG*, called Shamtode - Caliphate News, adhered to approximately the same “editorial policy”.

Since May 2015, the FISYRIA website grew into a media center called Furat, which, as the RFE/RL journalists suspect, also absorbed Shamtode.

The list was not listed

For all the obvious danger emanating from the Furat and other similar propaganda organs, it is not so easy to block them. The media center is tenacious, constantly “mutates”, adjusting to new circumstances. The social networks Facebook and Twitter regularly close the income accounts, including the Furat page. But in the same Facebook, notes RFE/RL, the IS media center* instantly creates a new account. For example, on July 1, 2017, Furat was re -registered in the form of a closed group. The very next day, 87 people were already in it.

Bloking Furat is not so simple. The media center is tenacious, constantly “mutates”, adjusting to new circumstances

In the fight against propagandists from IG* state bodies of some countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, they cope worse with blocking pages in social networks, but more successfully close the sites associated with IG* and other Islamic resources. But here there are strange oversights. So, for some reason, the Furat media center did not hit the list of prohibited sites, published on July 2, 2017, for some reason.

* IG, ISIS, the Islamic State, the caliphate is an organization banned in the territory of the Russian Federation as terrorist.

** “Jaish al-Mujakhirin Val-Ansar” (“Army of the Perevli and Partisans”)-a group prohibited in the Russian Federation as a terrorist.