Experts predict growth of IS* propaganda

The release on the Internet of a video with shelling of a FSB building in Ingushetia six months after it took place can be explained by the militants' failures in Iraq and Syria, believes Joanna Paraszczuk. The intensification of propaganda activity is taking place on the eve of the presidential election in Russia, noted Orkhan Djemal.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night on March 17, in Malgobek, a FSB Department building was shelled from a grenade launcher, and no one was injured as a result of the incident. On September 8, the NGO SITE Intelligence Group, monitoring the activity of terrorist groupings on the Internet, reported that supporters of the "Islamic State" (IS), recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia by court's decision, published a video about attacks on law enforcers in Malgobek.

The IS* intensifies the propaganda of terrorist activities in the Russian direction in connection with the failures in Iraq and Syria, believes Joanna Paraszczuk, an analyst from the British analytical centre IHS Jane's.

"Why did they publish the video just now? Probably because the IS* is now in a very bad position in Iraq and Syria. So, they are trying to incite attacks in Russia. They would not have posted a video about the attack at all if the situation did not force them to do that," Joanna Paraszczuk told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Orkhan Djemal, a Forbes journalist, believes there is no need for extremists to "hold" such videos.

"In general, I see no reason for the IS* to publish the video record with a six-month delay... Why not then, but now? Were Raqqa and Mosul not subjected to bombardments then? Was Palmira not captured in turn by the sides to the conflict? Was there no need for recruiting then?" Orkhan Djemal has asked.

The journalist believes the video record with the attack on the FSB Department building in Malgobek fits into the logic of the recent incidents with information about mass undermining of buildings throughout the country.

Orkhan Djemal has also added that all those events take place on the eve of the presidential election. The journalist has also noted Vladimir Putin was elected the Russian President for the first time on the wave of an antiterrorist campaign launched against the background of apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk.

*"Islamic State" (IS, earlier, ISIL) is recognized as a terrorist organization and is banned in Russia by court's decision.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.