According to foreign news reports there are hundreds of Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria. Pictured here Russian FSB officer on counter terrorism mission in Moscow.
RAI Novostri is reporting the fact that more than 200 Russian mercenaries are currently engaged in the fight in Syria.
Some of these Russian mercenaries are presumed fighting against U.S. backed Islamic terrorists groups like al-Qaeda and al-Nursa. Others may be fighting on the side of the Assad regime.
Which ever side these Russian mercenaries (“Soldiers of Fortune”) fight for in the Syrian civil war they bring their own unique and in some case extensive prior military experience to bear in the conflict.
According to the Russian security, FSB first deputy director Sergei Smirnov the practice of “recruiting mercenaries is very real.”
The FSB (ФСБ) is a state security organization in Russia.
It is the organization that came after the KGB, relating to internal security affairs inside the country.
Its name is an acronym from the Russian Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности Росси́йской Федера́ции) (Federal’naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoi Federatsii).
The FSB gather and collect any information that will help identify and prevent the activities of foreign intelligence agencies, prevent terrorist attacks, detect crimes of corruption, to ensure the security of the state and its citizens.
The FSB are comparable to the FBI here in the United States. As such they are, as you can imagine heavily engaged in the ongoing fight against terrorism in Russia (see video: ЦСН ФСБ. Нальчик http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqexoNjrJvQ&feature=related).
Deputy Director Smirnov’s estimate the number of Russian mercenaries are “significantly higher than one made in May 2013 by FSB head Alexander Bortnikov, who claimed that a total of about 200 mercenaries from Russia, Europe and Central Asia were fighting in the civil war” (source: Hundreds of Russians Fighting as Mercenaries in Syria – FSB http://en.rian.ru/world/20130920/183614084/Hundreds-of-Russians-Fighting-as-Mercenaries-in-Syria–FSB.html).
Smirnov said that as these mercenaries return home to Russia, they pose a “great danger” and unique security challenge to the Russian state.
The FSB released no names or profile information on any of the suspected Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria at this time, but indicated they are keeping a close eye on the situation.