FSB recruits ISIL fighters to send them as "agents" to Ukraine

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is recruiting former militants of the terrorist Islamic State (ISIL) and trying to introduce them as its "agents" into Ukrainian battalions.

Source: Investigation by Meduza

Details: Journalists describe the story of ISIL terrorist Baurzhan Kultanov, who "became disillusioned" with the militants and fled to Türkiye in 2014, where he asked for political asylum at the UN. When they found out about his terrorist past, Kultanov was detained.

A case was opened against Kultanov in Russia and in 2015 he was returned from Istanbul to the Russian Federation. 

Kultanov was taken from the airport to Astrakhan. Captain Alexander Gushchin of the FSB who was in charge of Kultanov's criminal case came to the airport to pick up the militant.

On the first day, Kultanov signed a confession, and one of the FSB investigators who worked on the case, Alexander Pisarev, had an unexpectedly lenient attitude towards the militant.

The case was heard under special proceedings, and Kultanov was sentenced to only four years and four months in prison.

On the eve of the verdict, Captain Gushchin spoke to Baurzhan for the first time about the possibility of cooperating with the FSB. "We will give you a minimum sentence, and as soon as you get free, we will make an agent out of you," Kultanov quotes the words of his future handler.

Kultanov said that cooperation began while he was in the penal colony: "I faked reports and committed perjury for Gushchin. [I] spoke on television on the orders of the FSB." More often than not, operatives showed Kultanov photos of strangers whom he was supposed to "recognise" as militants.

In 2018, shortly before Kultanov's release from the penal colony, Gushchin took him to the FSB building, sat him down at a table, and brought him an agreement to sign on cooperation with the secret service.

Kultanov was released in 2019. Gushchin informed the agent about his first assignment to Ukraine.

Gushchin said that Russia was interested in having agents all over Ukraine.

In 2019, Kultanov began training to infiltrate "Chechen groups and Tatar battalions that want to fight for the Armed Forces of Ukraine".

The FSB wanted to know "complete information" about the formations’ supply and personnel.

The secret service "decided not to bother" with a cover story. The FSB advised him to tell the truth, that he was a terrorist, a Muslim and convicted by the Russian Federation: "Just tell them that you don't like Russia or the FSB, and want to help."

To prepare Kultanov for infiltration, Gushchin's colleague in the Astrakhan Department of the FSB, operative Vadym Stetsenko, began working with him. Before the annexation of Crimea, Stetsenko had lived in Sevastopol, served in the counterintelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine, and then defected to the FSB.

From conversations with his new handler, Kultanov learned that the secret service was interested in Isa Akayev, the commander of the Islamic volunteer battalion Crimea, which had been fighting with Russia since 2014 and was made up of Crimean Tatars, Chechens and Kabardians.

Gushchin and Stetsenko hinted to Kultanov that they had many similar "agents" to send to Ukraine. 

In 2021, the FSB's plans for Kultanov changed, and he was sent to Türkiye "along with Russian emigrants".

On 25 March 2022, Kultanov flew to Türkiye, and since then has been in constant contact with Vladislav Voronin (Kultanov's new handler from the FSB), as well as with Igor Yatskevich from the Astrakhan Department of the FSB.

Kultanov was instructed to find out "who is preparing what against Russia" and collect any information related to Ukraine.

Among other tasks, he was asked to find a buyer for "counterfeit dollars, forged documents, passports, seals" and find out "about the transfer of cryptocurrency".

From his communications with the FSB officers, Kultanov realised they were engaged in contract assassinations in foreign countries. For example, operative Voronin twice instructed him to order the killing of people: "This was part of his business".

On 25 April 2023, Kultanov was detained and taken to an immigration detention centre in Nigde.

In 2022, Vera Mironova, a researcher of terrorist organisations, was contacted by a Caucasus Emirate militant named Walid: he called her by phone directly from a Russian penal colony.

Walid said he wanted to go to the front through the Wagner Group and surrender to Ukraine, but he was not drafted by the mercenaries. However, the FSB became interested in him.

He refused the FSB's offer, and then stopped communicating.

Journalists are aware of another attempt by the FSB to recruit a former militant. Karim, a Dagestani, said that he fought in ISIL, was in the same Jamaat [Islamic council - ed.] with Baurzhan Kultanov and also served time after returning to Russia.

In 2019, after Karim was released from prison, he was contacted by an FSB officer named Pyotr. The operative asked the former militant about people from the "Caucasus Emirate" or "sleeper cells" of ISIL, but, according to Karim, he did not share any information.

When demands for information replaced Pyotr's questions, Karim "realised that he needed to get lost – and left the country." Now he maintains contact with diasporas in different countries and notes that among the Muslims who left Russia for Ukraine, there is constant talk of recruitment by secret services: "Because of this, no one trusts anyone".

Mironova said that people with an extremist past could get to the Ukrainian front, and the Ukrainian special services are analysing this situation.

A source in the FSB also confirmed to journalists that they are constantly trying to send their agents to Ukraine, but not all of these attempts are successful. 

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