MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Foreign intelligence agencies increasingly use migrants from Central Asia in Russia to engage in sabotage and terrorist activities, Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Yury Kokov has said.

"The efforts of foreign intelligence agencies and international terrorist organizations under their control to recruit migrants from Central Asian countries in Russia for sabotage and terrorist activities have intensified," Kokov stated in an interview with the daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta. "The results of analysis indicate that a significant portion of Central Asia-born migrants are adherents of radical religious views, acquired in their home countries under the influence of radical Islamist preachers."

The Security Council’s deputy secretary cited the results of a sociological study conducted by the Federal Protective Service of Russia among labor migrants: "43.5% of respondents prefer Sharia to secular legislation, 24% are ready to take part in protests to defend the right to live in Russia according to religious norms, 15.3% are ready to take part in illegal political demonstrations."

"As a result, preconditions are created for the formation of stable diaspora groups and ethnic enclaves which are reluctant to assimilate into Russian society, give priority to ethnic traditions and religious dogmas to the detriment of compliance with secular legislation, and are ready to defend their beliefs by any means, including illegal ones," Kokov emphasized. He drew attention to the fact that "federal and regional authorities are systematically working to monitor compliance with the established rules for the stay of foreign citizens in Russia, as well as to counteract illegal migration."

"As a result of the measures taken, entry into Russia has been denied to more than 267,000 people in 2024, and more than 152,000 have been expelled," Kokov. He also pointed out that "the authorities are implementing a set of preventive and detective and search measures in the migrant environment in order to identify and neutralize terrorist threats," and "with the involvement of representatives of the clergy of traditional faiths, a set of measures is being carried out among migrants to explain the norms of legislation, to prevent the radicalization of members of diasporas under the influence of terrorist and extremist ideology."