In 2014, he left Stavropol for Istanbul. Then, he went to Syria where he immediately joined ISIS (banned in Russia). He fought on their side. This is the story of Muhammat Laipanov, a Russian who was born in Karachay-Cherkessia. Today, it was announced he's subject to an international arrest warrant for a crime. This is a recent rare example which proves the words of the Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya. The pseudo-caliphate is still a real threat to the southern regions of the country.
A photograph of this Laipanov speaks for itself. Here it is. He looks like a zealot. No, he is a zealot. It's a psychological impact that terrorists actively use. Sometimes, they act very gently and subtly. That's what Elena Karbashyan, a resident of Sochi, told us. She went to the Middle East with her lover. As a result, risking her life and with great difficulty, she managed to escape. Now, she tells what it was like.
Anton Podkovenko has the details.
- Hello, Anton.
- Hello.
- Is it true that it's very hard to notice anything suspicious in such cases and realize that there's something wrong with her lover?
- Elena told our colleagues from Sochi that she was living in the moment and thinking positive.
When she saw terrorists wearing masks, it was too late. Elena Karbashyan found out only in Syria that her husband had undergone training in ISIS (banned in Russia) to become a sniper. Prior to that, she easily agreed when he proposed to move from Sochi to Turkey with a young child. She even crossed the border of the Arab Republic secretly. She says that she couldn't imagine what it would lead to.
Elena Karbashyan: "My friend came and said that she saw a man. He was the only one in our village who was killed in that bombing. His body was covered, so she could see only his boots. I asked what color the boots were and if they sand-colored. She stopped talking".
It happened in the province of Hama. The insurgents and their families who were going to leave ISIS went there. But the war was there, too. Prior to that, Elena tried to escape together with her husband. He suddenly realized that a part of Syria occupied by terrorists wasn't a good place for his family to live in.
Elena Sutormina, member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation: "Women are weaker and can easily be influenced. She was blind with love, as we say. She should have realized earlier why they went to Turkey and crossed the border. Unfortunately, it's not an isolated incident. There was a time when not only young girls but married women sometimes left their husbands and children and being influenced like that, they joined that gang".
Elena went to ISIS prison twice for her attempts to escape. When it happened for the first time, she was pregnant with her daughter.
Elena Karbashyan: "They treated us badly. They threw food in pots like this to us. Neither the children nor we could eat it. The smell was awful. The tub was only in the toilet. We got water from there. There was a small hole through which we could peep at those people. We saw them beating and torturing people".
Now, there are only disparate gangs left of ISIS in Syria. They fight each other like cockroaches in a jar. Three years ago when Elena was in the Arab Republic, the situation was completely different.
Mais Kurbanov, political analyst: "The majority of women don't want to go there. Their husbands deceive them. There are many disgruntled people in ISIS who want to turn themselves in. So, there is a conflict with them, and they kill such people to prevent them from turning themselves in. It happens very often".
Of course, ISIS had psychological impact. Elena was told that she became one of them and was to never go back to her motherland because she'd be arrested there.
FSB agent: "Being in a territory where hostilities are taking place involves criminal liability. They charge people with participation in a terrorist gang".
After Hama was heavily bombed, a humanitarian corridor was opened, Elena Karbashyan and her two children went through it. It took them 10 hours to walk through it. They lost their way and wound up at a minefield.
Nadezhda Beskorovaynaya, Vesti reporter: "During that passage, her child lost his boots and had to walk barefoot. During that passage, her hand was injured. She was carrying her practically newborn daughter in a sling in front of herself. When a man blew up in front of her and a fragment hit her in the shoulder, she was afraid that her child was wounded".
Zoya Napso, Elena Karbashyan's mother: "Sometimes, I lost hope. Deep down, I felt that she'll come back. It was something bigger than hope".
Elena will never forget meeting her mother at the Sochi airport. She says that it's a wonder that she managed to come back alive and keep her children safe. Elena says she's now unlikely to leave Russia.
- That was Anton Podkovenko on recruitment through love.
