Students of NCFU and DSU deny presence of IS recruiters in their universities

There are no recruiters from the "Islamic State" (IS) in the North-Caucasian Federal University (NCFU) and the Dagestani State University (DSU). This was declared by students of the above universities.

It was reported that on March 23, Sergey Melikov, the Russian President's Envoy to the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), said that members of the "Islamic State" (IS) recognized on the territory of Russia as a terrorist organization, recruited students of the North-Caucasian higher educational institutions. To combat the recruitment, Sergey Melikov suggested that the administrations should pay attention to "extra-curricular activities of students" and their patriotic education.

Students of the NCFU (Stavropol) and the DSU interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" strongly deny the activities of IS supporters in their universities.

In September 2014, the training "Prevention of extremism among students" was held to discuss methods for combating extremism in Northern Caucasus.

According to Alexander Skakov, the coordinator of the Centre for the Study of Central Asia and Caucasus of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), it is impossible to detect a category of students most affected by the propaganda of the IS. The expert believes that not only bad students, but also talents can be affected.

In general, the expert believes that the recruitment of fighters in Russian higher educational institutions is unlikely to bring the desired effect, since there are "more appropriate places," like mosques. The large-scale propaganda is carried out with the help of the Internet. However, according to Alexander Skakov, the majority of Caucasian residents will not agree to leave their native region and go "to die for unclear ideals."

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