While the world keeps its eyes on the strongholds of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the jihadist group is now looking at using other radical movements closer to Europe to broaden its reach, raising red flags in the US.
Foreign policy expert retired Air Force Col. Cederic Leighton said there are already signs that ISIS is setting up a connection with extremists in Russia, Fox News wrote.
"They are riding a wave of popularity – wherever they get traction, that's where they are going to have a franchise operation ... and they are doing a great job of it in the Caucasus at the moment," said Leighton.
Russia has had its share of terror attacks, with the country's Caucasus region having a high degree of extremism. Militants connected to Chechnya held some people hostage in a Moscow theater in 2002, where 130 were killed. Two years later, armed Muslim rebels seized a school in southern Russia, leaving 331 people dead.
"At the root of that is an Islamist minority, which has been fighting for independence from the Russian government for a long time, and some of that has erupted in real war, real insurgency ... the potential for [terrorists] reaching to disaffected groups, that's only going to grow in Russia," said Heritage Foundation's James Carafano.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to lead a strong response to the threat, which Russians see as a "domestic issue."
"The Russians consider this a domestic issue and they are going after these people because they see them as a threat to the stability to their society," said Leighton.
The Russian response could worsen the situation, said Carafano, saying "what the Russian response has always been, which will be a heavy-handed physical security response, which in all likelihood is going to stir the pot even more."
The Boston Marathon bombing back in 2013 prompted the US to watch closely the situation in southern Russia, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan were believed to have had radical training while visiting relatives.
"The Tsarnaev brothers came from Dagestan and that area is right at the crossroads of all of these occurrences, where you got Islamic fundamentalist at work, Russian state trying to prevent it ... all of these things could very easily reach our shores, especially if refugees start coming from this area, so there are definitely potential implications for US security," said Leighton.
Both Leighton and Carafano said the US will keep an eye on developments in Russia in order to keep a potential similar radical movement from taking root from within.
In a related development, the landmark nuclear deal ironed out between Iraq and major world powers has paved the way for a "broad" coalition to fight against the ISIS, said The Guardian.
"It removes the barriers – largely artificial – on the way to a broad coalition to fight the Islamic State and other terrorist groups," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
