Putin Says Thousands From Russia, CIS Joined Islamic State
- Extremists pose a threat if they return home, president says
- Ex-Soviet states should coordinate terrorism fight, Putin says
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President Vladimir Putin said 5,000 to 7,000 people from Russia and states of the former Soviet Union have joined the ranks of Islamic State.
Those who’ve left to fight for Islamic State “can’t be allowed to apply later on at home the experience they are gaining today in Syria,” Putin told a Commonwealth of Independent States summit of ex-Soviet republics in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Friday. Russia considered it a “duty to take concrete action in the fight against the so-called Islamic State and other radical groups in Syria.”