Islamic State serious threat to Russia — CSTO chief

SOCHI, September 22. /TASS/. The Islamic State terrorist group is posing a serious threat to Russia, Nikolay Bordyuzha, the secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), said on Tuesday.

"ISIL today is an absolute evil threatening all countries. Nationals of all European states, Russia and CSTO member countries are fighting for ISIL and sooner or later they will be coming home," Bordyuzha told TASS.

"The worst thing is the ISIL key principle of expanding its influence and seizure of new territories," he added.

"This means that sooner or later ISIL fighters will make an attempt to reach our borders, which we would not like them to do for obvious reasons, and the situation, in my opinion, is very serious," Bordyuzha said.

According to the National Counter-Terrorism Committee, some 2,500 Russians are fighting for the Islamic State, he added.

"And these numbers seem absolutely real," Bordyuzha said.

Flow of migrants to Europe no threat to Russia

As far as refugees are concerned, the continuing tide of Syrian migrants to Europe poses no threat to Russia, the CSTO secretary-general went on to say.

"They (refugees) are going there (to Europe) because they have been strongly invited and promised democracy and good life," Bordyuzha said.

"I believe that this problem is not acute for us. There are representatives of other states who are arriving in our country and there are no fewer of them. There are one million migrants from Uzbekistan, half a million from Tajikistan, more than a million from Ukraine. We have accommodated all," he recalled.

"I would be very unhappy to see the state of affairs Europe has today to emerge on our border, too. Mass migration entails great problems for the security of individual people and the state," Bordyuzha said.