ISIS IN RUSSIA: 20 jihadi recruiters arrested in Moscow with FAKE Turkish documents

RUSSIAN security services have detained around 20 jihadis working as recruiters for the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group.

Most of those arrested were Uzbek nationals caught with fake documents, including false Turkish driving licences.

Authorities believe the group, whose location inside Russia is not yet known, were attempting to radicalise young Russians and draw them to the extremist cause.

A security source said: "During a joint operation of the FSB (Federal Security Service) and the police, around twenty people suspected of connections to ISIS were arrested.

"According to preliminary information, they were searching for and recruiting new members in Moscow."

ISIS has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Russia, mostly in the southern Caucasus region.

It has led Russian authorities to oversee a crackdown on Islamic extremists in recent months.

In February, security services detained seven members of the jihadi group accused of planning terror attacks on Moscow and St Petersburg.

Russian security experts have warned that the country is facing a "substantial" threat from homegrown extremists, with the potential for tens of thousands of radicalised Muslims to be living within its borders.

In January, three Russians were detained in connection with an Istanbul bomb blast.

Igor Sutyagin, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the war in Syria, state oppression of religious minorities and high youth unemployment had combined to create the "perfect" conditions for radicalisation.

Mr Sutyagin told Express.co.uk: "There is the threat [of homegrown extremists] because of the multinational structure of Russian society.

"The Russian government provides the excuse and reason for people to get radicalised.

"It is not only involved in the Syrian war but it is suppressing its own Muslims in the country."

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