To end a return

The Kremlin recognizes the threat of security by the militants of the Islamic State who returned from Syria, said Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. However, he questioned the data of the American consulting company Soufan Group, claiming that about 400 people had returned to Russia, Interfax reports.

“Again, I question these figures, but I also want to remind you that at various levels there was a potential danger, that people who joined the terrorists will return to their homeland, namely to Russia,” Peskov said. “This is well known to our special services. The opposition of this potential threat is one of the priorities.”

As the presidential spokesman emphasized, Vladimir Putin, making a decision on the start of surgery in Syria, said that, “in addition to the fight against terrorism, the Russian Federation has a goal of protecting their own security, based on the fact that several thousand people from Russia, including from the North Caucasus, according to our intelligence, are located in the territories, then controlled by IG”

The Soufan Group report Peskov refused to comment. "We do not evaluate the results of this report. We do not quite understand how much we can trust the given data, on the basis of what they are prepared and what sources of information this organization has," the presidential spokesman said. "We are more likely to question the reliability of this information."

On the eve of Soufan Group, she published a report "outside the caliphate: foreign fighters and the threat of their return." According to the company, 3417 Russians are fighting for IG. This is the highest rate among all countries. On the second line is Saudi Arabia - 3224 people, in third place of Jordan - 3 thousand people. TOP-5 also included Tunisia (2926 people) and France (1910). Soufan Group experts also calculated that 400 people returned to Russia from the ranks of IS, 760, 250, in Tunisis 800 to Saudi Arabia, and 271 in France.

Back in December 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that together with the FSB, more than 2,800 Russians who left for participation in the hostilities in Syria and Iraq were tracking . Another 889 already returning militants became defendants in criminal cases. In addition, operatives identified 92 recruiters of foreign illegal armed groups. Instructions on the conduct of additional operational-search and preventive measures in connection with the participation of Russia in a military operation against the "Islamic state" to the territorial territorial divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were almost immediately after its beginning.