(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
From 2011 to today, about 7000 Russians have traveled to the war in Syria. They are men and women, converts and born Muslims, high and low educated, specialists and black laborers, wealthy and poor, guerrilla warriors from the North Caucasian underground and soldiers from the security forces. Even entire families of children have traveled to the country where a devastating civil war is going on.
This stream does not stop. Russian citizens, most of them between 16 and 28 years old, travel to Syria from all over the country – not just from the North Caucasus, but from the north and south of Russia, from the central regions and from the metropolitan cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Russian nationals are not only fighting for the ISIS terrorist organization, but for a number of radical Islamist groups on Syrian soil, and for groups supporting President Bashar al-Assad.
One of the Islamist groups, Jaish-al-Mujahedin-al-Ansar, has from the beginning of 2012 consisted of people from the former Soviet Union. It is in this group that most of the Syrians from the North Caucasian underground are located. However, no Russian law prohibits this organization. By the way, ISIS was not included in the list of terrorist organizations prior to 29. December last year.
The Varvara case. In Russian media, there has been almost no discussion of Russian citizens' participation in the Syrian war. This is particularly evident when we compare the coverage of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, where Russia is actively participating: For almost two years, about half of the daily news coverage in Russia has been about Ukraine.
When in April this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the threat posed by Syria, he said: "Of course, there are no direct threats from ISIS. But there is concern that Russian citizens are also traveling to Syria. "This" concern ", which confines itself to government indifference, was the response to the fact that thousands of Russians are participating in the Syrian war on the part of radical Islamists.
But about a month later, attitudes changed – at least within society. In May, Muscovite Pavel Karaulov wrote a message on his Facebook page: "Children missed!" It was his 19-year-old daughter Varvara Karaulova who had disappeared. She studied at the State University of Moscow, the most prestigious university in the country, and was one of the best students in the cohort. She spoke five languages, including Arabic. Without his parents' knowledge, Varvara had converted to Islam and started wearing the hijab. At the end of May, she took a plane to Turkey to cross the border into Syria.
Pavel Karaulov's Facebook message ended with a cry for help: "If anyone can, please call me! All support and help is appreciated. I can pay anything, just help me! ”
Recruited on the internet. Varvara Karaulova never reached the war in Syria. It was not solely because the father succeeded in creating awareness around the case, but it helped. The Facebook message was shared by over 20 Russian Internet users, and eventually picked up by the media, which put pressure on the police and other authorities. Varvara was arrested in Istanbul and deported to Russia. The commission of inquiry sought to have her prosecuted for "participating in an armed group on foreign soil with the intention of counteracting Russian interests." However, under pressure from society, a criminal case was opened against some people from the Muslim region of Tatarstan, who allegedly recruited Varvara on the internet and enticed her to participate in "holy war". In this criminal case, she only has the status of a witness. It can be said that she has been lucky, because the Russian security service FSB is not gracious. Almost everyone who has returned to Russia after being disillusioned by the Syrian Islamists has been thrown straight into prison.
The case of Varvara Karaulova clearly shows two things: firstly, that it is solely the Syrians and their families who are responsible. Secondly, the case shows that the Russian authorities are extremely quick with the reactions, but for purposes other than what one might think. The security services control the whole process from the beginning – but they actually promote the flow of people traveling to Syria, thus contributing to more participants in the war. This is how they fight Russian terrorists.
Unresolved societal problems. According to experts, human rights workers and police, the level of activity of the North Caucasus underground has doubled during the years of war in Syria. Meanwhile, the state has failed to solve any of the societal problems that lead to Russian terrorists receiving fresh blood: corruption, unemployment, the absence of welfare benefits, the decline in quality of life in the Caucasus that has led to society becoming archaic, unresolved religious conflicts – everything is as before. But the war in Syria has become a tactical ally of the Russian security service – primarily through the aggressive and effective propaganda of Syrian Islamists spreading on the Internet (the state surveillance agencies do absolutely nothing to prevent this type of propaganda).
The war in Syria has become a tactical ally of the Russian security services.
Particularly visible is this policy in Dagestan, the North Caucasus region with Russia's largest Muslim population. It is precisely from here that most Syrians travel. From the small village of Novosasetli, which has no more than 2500 inhabitants, 22 people have traveled – including three women. For such a small place, this is very many. In comparison, 500 people have traveled from the patriotic city of Yekaterinburg (with a population of 15 million) to fight in Ukraine.
Negotiations on departure. Several of the inhabitants of Novosasetli are very religious people who live by Sharia law. Many of those who have traveled to Syria have been connected to the North Caucasus underground. In connection with this, the village has frequently been subjected to police actions. In addition to these brutal actions, the security services have also tried to weaken the underground movement by negotiating an exit for the guerrilla fighters. Precisely by negotiating with the warriors' relatives, the elders in the village and respected religious leaders, the security service has succeeded in getting the underground leaders to travel to Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. These negotiations have been successful.
"Here in the village, there is a person who has collaborated with the FSB to send some of the underground fighters out of the country to carry out jihad across the border," says Novosasitli's leader, Akhjad Abdullaev. "Now the subsoil is weakened, and we are fine. Those who have traveled wanted to fight. Let them fight, just not here with us. When the war in Syria began, a 'green corridor' was immediately opened to all. Those who are disappointed with life here, and have been convinced by the propaganda about the caliphate there, left with the whole family. Now they are trying to come back, but Russia does not want them. "
Victims of the epidemic. When Western countries sounded the alarm and began to list Islamist terrorist organizations, there was silence from Russia. If the authorities did not provide any direct assistance, they would at least not stand in the way of Caucasian warriors and their allies when they wanted to go and fight in a foreign war. However, this tactic has a side effect that was probably not expected from the authorities: the so-called Syrian virus has spread uncontrollably throughout the country, and has found people who are geographically and socially far away from our Caucasus. Today we have an epidemic all over Russia, and the victims are young people like Varvara Karaulova. But in the eyes of the security services, they are not victims. According to experience gained in Syria, they are considered a threat. In November 2013, one year (!) Before ISIS was officially declared a terrorist organization, Vladimir Putin signed a new law preventing foreign fighters from returning to Russia. The law has increased the sentence to ten years in prison for "participating in an armed group on foreign soil with the intention of counteracting Russian interests".
Translated from Russian by Kristian Krohg-Sørensen.
Milasjina is a correspondent in Ny Tid.
