MPs Valery Rashkin and Sergey Obukhov sent a letter to the heads of the Federal Migration Service and the Federal Border Guard Service, asking them to impose additional controls on the borders with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and to check all migrants who enter Russia from these states for links to Islamic State (previously ISIL/ISIS) or any other radical Islamist organization.

“We respect the peoples of the Central Asia and we have special deference towards religious leaders who explain to their parish that the Koran denounces the terrorist activities as absolutely inadmissible, but the terrorists still have high chances to recruit citizens of Central Asian countries through propaganda, blackmail or threats,” Valery Rashkin said in comments to Izvestia daily. The MP added that Islamic State had already threatened Russia with terrorist attacks and war.

The MPs added that if Islamic State intends to send its emissaries to Russia it would be much easier for them to recruit a number of people in the Central Asian republics, which have a visa-free regime with Russia and to send a great number of labor migrants to the country.

According to the MPs, the simplest and most effective way to defend Russia from infiltration by ISIS radicals is to introduce a visa regime with Central Asian states, with enough time between visa applications and their issuance for security services to check the would-be migrant’s connections.