FSB, police unaware of insurgents who fought Syrian govt returning to Tatarstan
KAZAN. Sept 13 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service (FSB) and Interior Ministry departments for Tatarstan declined to comment on allegations by Islam researcher Rais Suleimanov that members of insurgent groups fighting against the Syrian government forces are returning to Tatarstan.
Eduard Ismagilov, a spokesman for the FSB department for Tatarstan, told Interfax that he did not possess any information regarding Suleimanov's statement.
"I do not know whether Suleimanov is right or not. I cannot either confirm or deny this information, and I don't know where he is getting it from. I do not know him personally," he said.
Maxim Kostromin, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry department for Tatarstan, declined comments on the statement.
"It is at least perplexing," he said.
It was reported earlier that Suleimanov, the head of the Volga Center for Regional and Ethnic Religious Studies of the Russian Institute of Strategic Research, told Interfax earlier on Thursday that militants who have fought against Syrian governmental forces are coming back to Tatarstan.
"International radical Islamic forces from various parts of the world, among them Tatarstan, are fighting Bashar al-Assad now," he said.
In particular, a group of Tatar Wahhabis recently returned to Almetyevsk, 270 kilometers away from Kazan. It is led by a Syrian Arab who came to Russia under a refugee disguise. The group urgently moved to Mariy El, the expert said.
"Tatar Wahhabis may join the illegal armed groups of the Volga region, which cry out for terrorists with practical knacks," he said.
