Militant returning from Syria says there are preparations for terrorist attacks inside Russia

One of the militants arrested in Russia after his return from Syria has made a bargain with investigators. In return, the militant has revealed to federal police the names of dozens of other militants, including those involved in preparations for terrorist attacks on Russian soil, reports the newspaper Kommersant.

Arrested upon his return to Russia, the militant goes by the name “Islambek” and is allegedly a member of a Syria-based Islamic terrorist group, according to one of Kommersant's sources close to the investigation.

Islambek says he did not engage in any actual fighting while in Syria. Instead, he claims he only collected food at local markets for the other Islamist fighters and occasionally stood guard near their camp.

On one of these assignments, he was wounded in the leg and sent for medical treatment in Russia, where he was detained.

Islambek says at the camp in Syria there were about 1,500 people from Russia. Some of them have learned to set mines and explosives and are prepared to conduct operations outside of Syria, including in Russia, he says.

One of the people singled out in Islambek's testimony is Rashid Yevloyev, a law graduate from a state university located in a Russian republic neighboring Chechnya. Islambek says he saw Yevloyev among the fighters.

Islambek's accusations against Yevloyev are said to align with existing Russian intelligence. From September 2013 to January 2014, Yevloyev fought in Syria, and then relocated to Istanbul. Fearing persecution from Turkish authorities, Yevloyev moved to Germany. At the end of October 2014, he was detained by German authorities, who extradited him to Russia. Yevloyev has since been charged with training others in terrorist activities.

Yevloyev says he was merely studying the Turkish language at a school in Istanbul and has never been to Syria. 

In return for a reduced sentence, Islambek not only revealed the structure of armed groups in Syria that are composed of Russians, but also gave evidence of those who support and enable them.

By December 2015, 900 criminal cases had been filed in relation to Russians suspected of fighting in Syria.

The Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service are currently monitoring more than 2,800 Russians who left to fight in Syria.

The group for which the suspect, Islambek, worked is called “Jaish al-muhajirin wal-Ansar,” which originates in Syria, but consists almost entirely of immigrants from Russia and other CIS countries.