Alim Zankishiev was among husbands of Karaeva executed by IS

Elvira Karaeva, a native of Karachay-Cherkessia, who, according to the "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia, was executed in Syria, had several times married militants. Her husbands, including Alim Zankishiev from Kabardino-Balkaria, perished, while she survived; and it aroused suspicion of the IS, said Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an expert. She considers it unlikely that Karaeva could spy in favour of Russia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 12 the journalist Fatima Tlisova reported, citing an IS magazine in Russian, that Karaeva had been executed. According to the IS, the 28-year-old Karaeva was suspected by militants of cooperating with the Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB).

According to the "Novaya Gazeta", Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, the leading expert on Northern Caucasus of the NGO "International Crisis Group" (ICG), told that Karaeva joined the IS in 2015; and before that, she was twice convicted in Russia for participation in illegal armed formations (IAFs).

The third Karaeva's husband – Alim Zankishiev, the Amir of Kabardino-Balkarian militants, – was killed when Karaeva was in prison.

Ms Sokiryanskaya has indicated that in recent years radical Muslim women often moved from Russia to the IS: some of them by romanticizing the jihad, others – in order to arrange their lives, knowing about the institute of social protection for women in the IS.

In Russia, the life of women, whose husbands are linked with the underground, is almost unbearable: they are shadowed by power agents; they face obstacles when trying to find a job or rent an apartment; and their children have problems at school, adds the expert.

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