Recruiters for feared terrorist organization the Islamic State are actively recruiting new members in Russia's Far East, a regional Muslim organization said in a statement Monday.
The Brotherhood organization claims that Islamic State recruiters attempted to lure in young recruits by offering monthly salaries of up to 50,000 rubles ($880), a substantial boost from the average Russian salary — which the State Statistic Service pegged at 34,377 ($608) in April.
The comparatively sumptuous salary has proved tempting among Muslim youth in the region suffering from a lack of prospects amid the financial crisis, the organization said.
A criminal case has been launched against one suspected recruiter, a native of Central Asia, according to Brotherhood, citing sources in the Federal Security Service and Federal Migration Service.
In a bid to prevent young muslims from joining the Islamic State, the Brotherhood organization conducts lectures at regional universities elucidating the Islamic State's “anti-Islamic essence,” according to the statement.
Some 2,000 Russians are fighting alongside the Islamic State, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists last week, though he asserted that hundreds among them had left Russia long ago to take up residency in Europe.
Russian government representatives have repeatedly voiced concern about these fighters eventually returning home.
The Islamic State is a jihadi militant group that has seized control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria, as well as smaller areas of other countries.
It has gained worldwide notoriety for grisly execution videos — some apparently showing young children gunning down individuals that have run afoul of the group's rigid principles, as well as footage of its members destroying revered cultural and religious sites.
The group has likewise claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, such as a June 26 massacre at a Tunisian resort that claimed 38 lives, including one Russian victim.
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