[Bloomberg] Hundreds of thousands of Muslims shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as their leader condemned Charlie Hebdo supporters after militants slaughtered five of its cartoonists. The protest was organized by the state and televised live across the country for over an hour, but it wasn't in Iran or Pakistan. It was in Russia, where Vladimir Putin came to power promising to "wipe out" Muslim extremists, even "in the outhouse".Fifteen years later, Putin is seeking to turn Muslim rage to his advantage by pushing for a united front against what he sees as a U.S.-led conspiracy to dominate the world. Putin is also trying to neutralize the threat posed by the return of Russian jihadis currently fighting for the IS.
The rally last month was held in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Ramzan Kadyrov told the crowd "Western agents" probably organized the Charlie Hebdo massacre to trigger a "new wave" of Islamic State recruits for their war on Islam. Kadyrov has said the U.S. secretly controls the IS. Alexei Malashenko, a Middle East analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said, "The protest was an attempt to meld Muslim opinions with Russian-wide views about the Western world, a lever to unite the population around Putin."
Putin visited Egypt on February 9 and discussed the IS with his counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. While the group poses an "unprecedented" threat, the U.S. and its allies bear the responsibility for creating the conditions for its success, Putin told Egypt's Al- Ahram newspaper.
Russian authorities are bracing for an upsurge in North Caucasus violence now that the IS has declared Russia an enemy for arming Assad. About 1,500 Russians have fought for the IS and many are starting to return, according to the government's Anti-Terror Committee. Caucasian Knot chief Grigory Shvedov said, "Russia is the Islamic State's new target. The process has begun."
The IS last month released a video in which a boy appears to execute two men accused of spying for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). One said in an alleged confession that he was gathering data about fighters from Russia, while the other said he was sent to locate the home of the group's leader.