Russian Federal Security Service chief warns of online terrorist recruitment infrastructure
Terrorist propagandists are actively using people’s fears over the spread of COVID-19, creating an online infrastructure for recruiting future terrorists, Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said on Wednesday during the ninth Moscow Conference on International Security.
“The practically universal isolation has led to the sped-up growth of online communication between people. Economic crises, which worsened during the pandemic, the citizens’ fear for their health and the overall uncertainty of the future have increased public anxiety and social tension in different countries.
Online propagandists of terrorism and extremism are aggressively working with the vulnerable sectors of society as well as representatives of the middle class, whose financial situation deteriorated over the past year,” Bortnikov said.
“Essentially, an entire global infrastructure ‘producing’ future terrorists has been built online,” he added.
According to the FSB chief, the negative side effects of coronavirus restrictions are yet to be estimated fully. He noted that in the period of social distancing, migrants and various diasporas tend to separate them from society even more.
“In these conditions, representatives of international terrorist organizations get more opportunities to use propaganda and recruitment strategies, to organize and carry out terrorist attacks,” Bortnikov said.
Another trend is the radicalization of local populations against migrants, national and religious minorities, the rise of far-right sentiments, and the popularization of neo-Nazi ideas and organizations.
“We have to point out that there are still states in Europe that are justifying Nazism or even including it in its national ideology. The paramilitary organizations active on their territory give the opportunity for far-right activists from other states to train in their camps,” the FSB director said.
He stressed that while in their home countries, neo-Nazis act as enemies to Muslims, they often fight alongside radical Islamists in paramilitary groups on the territory of third states.
“This once again shows that terrorism is terrorism regardless of what mottos it is hiding behind. We are fighting all incarnations of terrorism in Russia. I am calling on our colleagues to use the same approach,” Bortnikov said.
Source: TASS
