ABSTRACT

The spread of Islam State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and similar Islamist movements has become a global phenomenon that might be compared with the spread of radical Marxism at the beginning of the last century. Thus, Lenin believed, as did Soviet leaders during the Civil War, that the victory of European Marxists would ultimately help Soviet Russia, and Moscow should help them in expectation of future rewards. One could assume that its ideologists started to regard North Caucasus as one of the weakest links—to employ Lenin’s expression—that if broken could start global jihad. One contributor noted that after the first Chechen war, most of the leaders ran away. According to one of the contributors to the discussion, ISIS credentials were also questioned. In December 2014 Moscow designated Al-Nusra, an al-Qaida affiliate, as a terrorist organization. The Kremlin discarded the notion of cooperation with Washington for several reasons.