ISIS Movement in Russia Raises US Concern [+video]

ISIS strongholds in Iraq and Syria are the focus of much scrutiny, but there are new concerns the terror network is looking to use other radical movements closer to Europe as a way to expand their reach.

Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to foreign policy experts retired Air Force Col. Cederic Leighton and the Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano about the terror network’s influence.

Leighton says there are already indications ISIS is linking up with Russian extremists. “They are riding a wave of popularity – wherever they get traction, that’s where they are going to have a franchise operation … and they are doing a great job of it in the Caucasus at the moment.”

Russia has dealt with terror attacks linked to Russia’s Caucasus region, where extremism runs high. In 2002, militants linked to Chechnya took hostages in a Moscow theater, where 130 people were killed. Then, in 2004, armed Muslim rebels took over a school in southern Russia, killing 331 people.

“At the root of that is an Islamist minority, which has been fighting for independence from the Russian government for a long time and some of that has erupted in real war, real insurgency … the potential for [terrorists] reaching to disaffected groups, that’s only going to grow in Russia,” said Carafano, vice president at the Heritage Foundation. (Read more from “ISIS Movement in Russia Raises US Concern” HERE)

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