[RFE/RL] On her 20th birthday, Varvara Karaulova had plenty of time to consider the prospect of a decade behind bars. The Moscow State University philosophy student, whose name has become synonymous to some with a spreading extremist threat to Russia, was in the high-security Lefortovo pretrial detention facility on November 29, more than a month after she was sent there over alleged ties to Daesh.Court officials say that Karaulova, who was detained by Turkish authorities near the Syrian border in June, has confessed to trying to join Daesh, but her lawyers dispute that.
Pavel Karaulov insists his high-achieving daughter was not a likely candidate for recruitment by Islamists, although he also acknowledges that she seemed to be living a double life before her trip, unbeknownst to her middle-class parents. He said, "We found out that she would leave home dressed in absolutely normal clothes for students -- jeans, sneakers, shirts, T-shirts, denim jackets -- but at the university she would change into Muslim-style clothes: long skirt and head scarf."