DAESH releases video claiming to kill Russian spy

DAESH on Wednesday released a video in which a Russian-speaking man confesses to spying for Russia's security service and then is shown apparently being beheaded by another Russian-speaking man. The authenticity of the video or the claims in it could not immediately be confirmed and there was no comment from Russia's Foreign Ministry or its FSB security service. There was also no indication when and where the video was produced. Russia on Sept. 30 launched airstrikes in Syria that it says are focused on DAESH fighters and the illegal oil trade that funds them. However, critics in both Syria and abroad claim that Russia is heavily targeting other rebel groups not affiliated with DAESH, in order to back up the forces of longtime Moscow ally Syria's Bashar Assad.

DAESH claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner shortly after it took off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in mid-October, killing all 224 people aboard. The video begins with a graphic in Arabic and Russian, saying "You will be conquered and humiliated, O Russians." Then a bearded man appearing to be in his late 20s is shown speaking from a chair. He says he is from Chechnya, identifies himself as Magomed Khasayev and says he is a spy sent to DAESH-held territories with orders from Russian intelligence to identify fighters who seek to return to the Caucasus region to carry out attacks. He says he was pressured into working for the FSB, to report on Russians who had gone to fight with DAESH. He says he had contacts with his Russian intelligence handler, but was arrested by DAESH. The video then shifts to showing the man kneeling on a beach while another man stands behind him, delivering a speech to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The man, brandishing a knife, says in Russian, "Listen to me, Putin, you dog" and declaring that Russians will be killed in retaliation for Russia's airstrikes in Syria against DAESH. The man then places his large knife against the prisoner's throat and appears to begin decapitating him.

In the wake of the Russian airliner bombing and the November terror attacks in Paris, Moscow has publicly declared determination to defeat DAESH and has pushed for international cooperation toward that goal. Russia's Caucasus region has been it by insurgencies for two decades, including two full-scale wars in Chechnya. DAESH is believed to find the Caucasus a productive region for recruiting fighters.

DAESH previously beheaded several journalists, aid workers, civilians and fighters from warring factions. Many of the murdered people were holding foreign nationalities. There were British, American, Japanese and Israeli citizens among the decapitated people. The U.S. established a coalition against DAESH on September 2014 after a U.S. citizen was beheaded. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a recently published report that DAESH has executed as many as 3,500 people, majority of whom were civilians including children and women since declaring its "caliphate" in June last year.