Russian militants in Syria pose threat once back home: Medvedev
A large number of Russians, currently active in the ranks of terrorist groups in Syria, might also launch terror attacks once they return home, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warns.
“Thousands of Russian citizens and individuals from other post-Soviet republics are fighting in Syria. These completely brainwashed people return home as professional murderers and terrorists. And we don't want them to stage something similar in Russia after their Syrian stints expire,” Medvedev said on Saturday.
Late last year, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, known as the FSB, revealed that some 2,900 Russians had left the country to join terrorist groups operating in the war-torn Syria. According to official figures, over 90 percent of these people left after mid-2013.
“We have already experienced this, including in the context of the Caucasus war in the 1990s. First of all, we want them to stay there. Second, the Syrian government asked Russian leaders to help them reinstate law and order,” Medvedev said.
Russia has been engaged in an anti-terror campaign through conducting airstrikes against the positions of terrorists in Syria since September 30, 2015, based on a request from the government in Damascus. According to analysts, the campaign has largely been successful in helping Syrian government forces dislodge foreign-sponsored militants from many regions across the country.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian premier reiterated that “the people of Syria” must decide their political future, whether their leader be the incumbent President Bashar al-Assad or someone else.
“This is not our business. But we don’t want Syria to disintegrate into a number of enclaves and sectors, where each sector would be controlled by separate terrorist groups,” Medvedev said.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
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