MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Radical Islamist fundamentalists have stepped up their activity for recruiting young people in Russia’s Central Federal District to involve them in committing crimes, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said at a meeting on the District’s security on Friday.
"For the purpose of drawing the youth into the unlawful activity, representatives of radical Islamist fundamentalists have intensified their work for prompting individuals traditionally unrelated to the peoples of the Muslim culture adopt Islam," the security chief said.
"The extremist associations that include Jehovah’s Witnesses outlawed in the Russian Federation and the Church of Scientology International are making attempts to strengthen their positions in Russia," the Security Council secretary said.
A special risk group includes young people among migrants who do not accept the social and cultural norms of Russian society and are the carriers of extremist beliefs of religious nature, Patrushev said.
"They constitute the resource base for terrorist and extremist organizations," the security chief stressed.
"Security forces exposed and neutralized over 60 ‘sleeper’ cells of such organizations on the district’s territory in 2019," Patrushev said.
Problems in the system of upbringing, unemployment, corruption and difficulties in resolving social safety net issues and getting education are the basic factors that contribute to the spread of radical ideology among the youth, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council said.
"The ideology of subcultures that negate the existing norms of morality and ethics in society and contribute to establishing extremist and terrorist communities are becoming increasingly widespread," he said.
"The tendencies of involving young people into the activity of religious organizations untraditional for Russia and totalitarian sects that are advocating the ideas of neo-paganism, occultism and Satanism persist," Patrushev said.