Putin's sympathies show for kids of ISIS

Russia takes dozens from Iraq, Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 2, 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrey Rudakov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 2, 2017. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Andrey Rudakov.

Zalina Gabibulayeva has had five children, four husbands and two jail sentences. All her spouses were Islamist militants who are either dead or in prison, the last two in Syria, where she was among hundreds of women stranded by the war before officials brought her back to Russia.

"I thank God every day that we are here," Gabibulayeva, 37, said by phone from Grozny, the capital of Russia's mostly Muslim republic of Chechnya, where she and her children receive about $610 per month in state welfare payments.

While President Vladimir Putin is renowned for his ruthless approach to terrorists -- once vowing to "waste them in the outhouse" -- Russia has been more willing than many Western nations to help women and children linked with Islamic State fighters to return home from the Middle East. He's explained the motivation by saying children didn't choose to go to the conflict zone "and we have no right to leave them there."

Nearly 100 family members of jihadists in Syria and Iraq were repatriated in late 2017 before Russia's intelligence service raised security concerns in a country that's repeatedly been the target of terrorist attacks. Russia's experience illustrates challenges facing the U.S. and Europe as they decide how to deal with citizens captured in Syria and Iraq who were part of the Islamic State group.

"Russia's human-rights record is deeply problematic, but it has done a lot -- more than Western democracies -- on the issue of returns," said Tanya Lokshina, Human Rights Watch associate director for Europe and Central Asia. "Globally, Russia had the most active program to return detainees from Iraq and Syria, notably children."

Paradoxically, the program was initiated by Ramzan Kadyrov, the feared leader of Chechnya who was put on the U.S. sanctions list in December 2017 and accused of responsibility for "extrajudicial killing, torture and other gross violations" of rights. That same month, Putin backed Kadyrov's "noble" efforts to rescue children while making no mention of women trapped in the war zone.

The president's endorsement offered an important signal to Russia's estimated 25 million Muslims, the country's second-largest religious group. The Kremlin has worked hard to retain the loyalty of Europe's largest Muslim minority while fighting home-grown militants in Chechnya and neighboring areas of the North Caucasus. Still, women brought back from the Middle East are kept under surveillance by the security services and often have to give speeches denouncing their involvement with Islamic State.

In all, 21 women and 105 children returned to Russia, according to Kheda Saratova, a Chechen human-rights activist. Officials organized 11 flights from August 2017 to February last year and the initiative resumed after a 10-month pause on Dec. 30, when a plane from Iraq brought 30 children aged 3 to 15, sent by their imprisoned mothers to relatives in Russia.

Only children were accepted after November 2017 after warnings by Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov about terrorism risks posed by adults. Russia is a target for the Islamic State, particularly since Putin sent his military to intervene in the Syrian war in 2015.

Kremlin Commissioner for Children's Rights Anna Kuznetsova, who was on December's flight, said that Russia plans to bring about 40 minors from Iraq this month.

A Section on 02/04/2019

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