The president of the Russian region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, suggested on his Instagram account that terrorists should be tied to drones and dropped on the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
“I propose suspending detained terrorist to drones and drop them on the heads of their accomplices,” he said. “No hearings are necessary. I am confident that every Russian knows their duty, every patriot of the Fatherland will report any information that may contribute to the identification of terrorists and where they live!”
He posted the video in response to the terrorist attack on the Russian Metrojet over the Sinai Peninsula on October 31.
Kadyrov is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. He routinely uses his social media accounts to praise Putin; this Instagram post goes on to do so, as well. He encouraged the world “to realize that war is knocking on all doors and immediately join forces for the destruction of ISIS.” He warned that terrorism will “cause panic around the world, paralyzing air, sea, and rail links, and bring down the economy.” To him, there is only one way to destroy ISIS.
“If the world does not want such a development they need to immediately support the real fight, which is lead by Russian President Vladimir Putin,” he wrote.
On Monday, Kadyrov announced that at least 480 Chechens have joined ISIS, 200 of which are dead. He did not tell the media how he obtained this information. He also stated his government “brought back” 47 Chechen men, “who are believed to have been drafted into the Islamic State ‘by means of deception.’“
In June, the Russian Interior Ministry reported that over 400 Chechens traveled to Syria to join radical Islamic groups, mainly ISIS, since the civil war broke out in 2011.
“A total of 405 people, according to our data, have left Chechnya to join the fighting in Syria on the side of the Islamic State since the beginning of the war in that region,” said the spokesman. “Among those, 104 have been killed and 44 came back, while the fate of the rest is unknown.”
Russia is the largest contributor of recruits to ISIS outside of the nations of the Middle East. A month later, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said over 2,200 Russians joined ISIS.
“The figures start getting really alarming,” he stated, adding:
At the time being, around 2,200 people from Russia are engaged in the fighting in Syria and Iraq. Among them, about 500 came from Europe, where they had earlier obtained citizenship, residence permit or refugee status. We are thoroughly analyzing belligerent statements of IS leaders on transition of the “jihad” to Northern Caucasus and in Central Asia.
While leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi hardly shows his face, the terrorists plaster military leader Omar al-Shishani’s face all over their propaganda. ISIS featured him in a video from August 2014 from one of their children training centers, who showed off their military skills for al-Shishani.
In March, a man named Abu Dudjana shared a message on his VKontakte (Russia’s version of Facebook) from Russian women within ISIS that encouraged other Russian women to join them in Syria. The ladies claim they are in “the blessed land of Sham,” which is the name other caliphates have used in the past for a region that includes most of Syria. They ask their sisters “in the lands of the infidels” to join them, since Russia “is a state of humiliation and shame.”