IS posts video with captured Don Cossack

The terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia, has posted a video, showing a person, who introduced himself as a native of the Rostov Region and said that he was captured prisoner in Syria.

On October 3, the publication of the above video was reported by the NCO SITE Intelligence Group, engaged in monitoring the activities of terrorist groupings on the Internet.

The video shows two men, one of whom introduces himself as Roman Zabolotniy, born in 1979, a native of the Rassvet village in the Aksai District of the Rostov Region. He introduces another man as Grigory Tsurkanu (or Tsurkanov), born in 1978, from the Domodedovo District of the Moscow Region.

An official from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has denied the version about capture of soldiers in Syria.

The man in the video looks like Roman Zabolotniy, reports Ivan Vasilenkov, the chief for the headquarters of the regional Cossack organization in the Aksai yurt as quoted by the RBC.

People shown in the video could be participants of individual military campaign, suggested Colonel Andrei Payusov. According to him, at such age, career officers do not go into attacks and are not permitted to wear beards, like a person who introduced himself as Roman Zabolotniy.

"We believe this is a purposeful tactics of the Russian MoD: when sending mercenaries to the heaviest battles, they avoid serious losses among personnel and therefore maintain the image of a successful operation," said Ruslan Leviev, the leader for investigators from the Conflict Intelligence independent group.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.