Kabardino-Balkaria ‘shuts down financial channel to Islamic state’

Police in Kabardino-Balkaria claimed on 6 July to have shut down a channel being used to transfer funds from the republic to to the Islamic State, according to Regnum, quoting the Chief Prosecutor’s Office. A Criminal case has been launched.

It was reported at a meeting of the Interdepartmental Commission on Combating Organised Crime in the republic, that around ₽300,000 ($5,000) had been transferred via this channel. The money was reportedly sent first to Turkey, where intermediaries sent it on to areas controlled by the Islamic State in Syria.

The authorities did not specify if anyone has been arrested.

According to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office of Kabardino-Balkaria, the influence of ‘radical Islamist ideas’ among young people was underlined as a problem by the commission.

‘The activities of organised criminal groups, especially members of extremist bandit underground groups and radical Islamists, continue to have a negative impact on the criminal situation in the republic’, the statement reads.