Russian security authorities provided homegrown terrorists with ID cards and passports along with all legal documents necessary to travel abroad to go and fight especially in Syria via Turkey.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Russia became one of the top countries sending foreign fighters to the region.
According to a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG), Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, Russia is the third language spoken by Daesh terrorists after Arabic and English.
“Russia is one of the important suppliers of foreign fighters,” said the senior ICG analyst.
In a recent interview with Reuters news agency, Saadu Sharapudinov, a former member of an outlawed group in Russia and current Daesh, militant, explained how Russian authorities allowed him to leave the country and to join the terror group in Syria.
Sharapudinov, 38, was one of the most wanted persons in Russia only four years ago. He was hiding in the forests of the North Caucasus, dodging patrols by paramilitary police and plotting a massive attack against Moscow. But in December 2012, he got an unexpected offer from Russian intelligence officers.
Sharapudinov told Reuters that the Russian officers said that if he agreed to leave the country, the authorities would not arrest him. In fact, they would facilitate his departure, providing him with all legal documents and support.
“I was in hiding, I was part of an illegal armed group, I was armed,” said Sharapudinov during an interview in a country outside Russia. Yet he says the authorities cut him a deal. “They said: 'We want you to leave.'”
Sharapudinov agreed to go. A few months later, he was given a new passport in a new name, and a one-way plane ticket to Istanbul. Shortly after arriving in Turkey, he crossed into Syria and joined Daesh.
Reuters have identified five other Russian terrorists who, relatives and local officials say, also left Russia with direct or indirect help from the authorities and ended up in Syria.
All six Russian terrorists were sent to Syria through Turkey with new names and passports. According to Reuters, all of them are fighting for Daesh, which Russia now says is its "mortal enemy.”
According to Sharapudinov and other sources, Russia allows terrorists to join terror groups abroad in order to eradicate the risk of domestic terror attacks.
let alone turning a blind eye to terrorists leaving the country, intelligence, police and customs officers even encouraged them to leave and in some cases, they make deals with the terrorists regarding the issue.
The figure is only a fraction of the terrorists who left Russia and joined the militant group in the last four years.
According to the Russian security service report published last year, some 2,900 Russians had left to fight in the Middle East. International monitoring groups claimed the figure could be higher than the released number.
Official data also shows that more than 90 percent of the terrorist left Russia after mid-2013.
“Before the Olympics, Russian authorities did not prevent departures and a significant number of fighters left Russia. There was a very specific short-term task to ensure the security of the Olympics ... They turned a blind eye on the flow of radical youth to the Middle East,” said Sokriyanskaya from the ICG.
Russia repeatedly denied ever running a program to help terrorists to leave the country or allow the departures of Daesh recruiters.
A Turkish intelligence report also unveiled that Russia sends hundreds of terrorists to Turkey en route to Syria, though most of them are either deported or arrested in Turkey.
