The object of the author’s research is terrorism, as a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation. The subject area is the problem of terrorist recruitment on the scale of the post-Soviet space. The main purpose of the article is to assess the risks of terrorist recruitment for the Russian Federation in a special territorial angle – the post-Soviet space. The authors completed the following research stages: selection of potential collaborating countries of the recruitment system, the comparative analysis and ranking of these states with subsequent identification of the most likely participants in the system, identification of forms and potential scenarios of terrorist recruiting. The researchers come to the conclusion that the conditions for terrorist recruitment have developed to the greatest degree in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. Probable form of recruiting can be, for example, prison jamaat, and the environment for it– a migration corridor or a pseudo-religious community.

terrorism, terrorist recruiting, post-Soviet space, religious radicalism, terrorist groups, the threat to national security, countering terrorism

1. Avdeev Yu.I. [Religious terrorism: peculiarities of formation, modern role, and traits]. In: Terrorizm i religiya [Terrorism and religion]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2005, pp. 176–198.
2. Bagdasaryan V.E., Sulakshin S.S. Sovremennyi fashizm: novye obliki i proyavleniya [Modern fascism: new forms and manifestations]. Moscow, Science and politics Publ., 2017. 328 p.
3. Balmasov S.S. [What is behind the threats of the “Islamic state” leaders to Azerbaijan?]. In: Institut Blizhnego Vostoka [The Institute of the Middle East]. Available at: http://www.iimes.ru/?p=23313 (accessed: 14.03.2016).
4. [16 attacks have been prevented in nine cities of Russia during the year]. In: Lenta.ru: informatsionnyi portal [Lenta.ru: information portal]. Available at: https://lenta.ru/news/2017/04/11/bortnicov (accessed: 20.06.2017).
5. Gasparyan O.T. et al. Indeksy razvitiya gosudarstv mira [The indices of the countries development: reference book]. Moscow, Publishing house of the Higher School of Economics Publ., 2014. 247 p.
6. Luk’yanov G. Kakoi etnicheskii sostav u IGIL? [What is the ethnic composition of the ISIS?]. Available at: https://thequestion.ru/questions/45892/kakoi-etnicheskii-sostav-u-igil (accessed: 15.05.2017).
7. [Who turns Dagestan into the outpost of Wahhabism?]. In: KP.RU. Available at: https://www.kp.ru/daily/25984/2916244 (accessed: 28.06.2017).
8. [The criminal investigation into the terrorist attack in the subway of Saint Petersburg April 03, 2017]. In: Sledstvenny Komitet RF [Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation]. Available at: http://sledcom.ru/news/item/1114189 (accessed: 19.06.2017).
9. [The Federal Service for Execution of Punishments is ready to negotiate with the Islamists]. In: Nezavisimaya gazeta [The independent newspaper]. Available at: http://www.ng.ru/ng_religii/2017-04-19/10_419_fsin.html (accessed: 28.06.2017).
10. Shegaev I.S. [Terrorist collaboration: the risks of the post-Soviet space]. In: Teorii i problemy politicheskikh issledovanii [Theories and problems of political studies], 2016, no. 3, pp. 320–331.
11. Shegaev I.S. [Terrorist recruitment: the degree of scientific elaboration (on the materials of public dissertation researches)]. In: Protivodeistvie terrorizmu. Problemy XXI veka – COUNTER-TERRORISM [Counteraction to terrorism. Problems of the XXI century – COUNTER-TERRORISM], 2017, no. 1, pp. 21–27.
12. Fragile States Index: Assessing State Fragility in 2016. In: The Fund for Peace. Available at: http://library.fundforpeace.org/library/fragilestatesindex-2016.pdf (accessed: 23.05.2017).
13. Global Peace Index 2016. In: Institute for Economics and Peace. Available at: http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2017/02/GPI-2016-Report_2.pdf (accessed: 23.05.2017).
14. Global Terrorism Index 2016: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism. In: Institute for Economics and Peace. Available at: http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2016.2.pdf (accessed: 27.04.2017).
15. Human Development Report 2016. In: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_report.pdf (accessed: 27.04.2017).
16. Khalaf F., Hoffmann A. The Girl Who Escaped ISIS. Los Angeles, Vintage, 2017. 224 p.