It’s rather ironic. You’ve probably noticed that every time the media writes "ISIS," "IS," or "Islamic State," they обязательно add "an organization banned in Russia." It looks odd, but obviously if that disclaimer is omitted, the outlet could be punished. That’s how frightening an organization the Islamic State is.
Now let’s look at the latest VTsIOM poll on Syria:
4% of Russian citizens support ISIS and believe that Russia should fight on its side.
4 percent, Carl. That’s 5.8 million people.
That is more than the number of people willing to vote for Putin’s All-Russia People’s Front:
That is more than the combined population of Chechnya and Dagestan (4.3 million people).
Levada, unfortunately, does not have a fully identical poll, but it does have this one:
14% are outraged and indignant about the bombing of ISIS.
Of course, among that 14% there are many who are upset by bombings in general—by the fact of war and the loss of human life. And among that 4% there are plenty who do not understand anything at all and simply think: if something is called "Islamic," then one ought to fight on its side.
Still, the figures are telling, and what they show, it seems to me, is this:
The obvious trend toward the Islamization of Russia and the growing religiosity of Muslim communities has led to the emergence of a large number of people in Russia who live with the idea that someone, somewhere, must necessarily fight for Islam and/or for the Islamic State.
The openly government-backed "anti-Charlie Hebdo rallies" (in effect, rallies in support of terror), held while all of Europe was taking to the streets in support of journalists, legitimize religious aggression and extremism. Many people seem to think that this is exactly how it should be.
Russia’s sudden entry into a complex, multilayered, but essentially Sunni-Shia conflict is not very understandable to Muslim communities (overwhelmingly Sunni), to whom, as part of the Kremlin’s foolish "Eurasian" strategy, the concept that "Russia is one of the leaders of the Islamic world" had been aggressively sold.
This will not lead to anything good.