ISIS Urges Followers to Attack Russia

The Islamic State on Sunday released a video urging its followers to wage attacks on Russia. In the nine-minute video, a masked man is shown threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin personally. “Listen Putin, we will come to Russia and will kill you at your homes... Oh Brothers, carry out jihad and kill and fight them,” the man says. A link to the subtitled video was sent out on the Telegram messaging app, which the group has been known to use. The video also shows armed men ransacking armored vehicles and collecting weapons in the desert, though it’s not clear if they are meant to be stocking up on Russian weaponry. The terrorist group has repeatedly threatened Russia in recent years, and Putin directly, in videos published to YouTube. Russia’s Federal Security Service has warned in recent months that militants in the country’s turbulent North Caucasus are becoming increasingly susceptible to ISIS propaganda, and hundreds if not thousands of young men from the region are thought to have gone to Syria and Iraq to join the group.