'Corruption hub' Ukraine could offer terror route to Europe for Russian IS fighters 16:

The village of Karata clings precariously to the walls
of a river valley in the Russian state of Dagestan.
It is a picturesque spot and we watched as residents
worked and prayed and tended to verdant gardens,
cut from the sides of the surrounding mountains.
But there is one patch in this community that has
clearly gone to seed.
It belongs to a pensioner called Kazim
Nurmagomedov and he has not really touched it in
the past three years.
Instead he was busy dealing with a family tragedy - a
series of traumatic events that began when his
youngest son Marat went to Syria to join so-called
Islamic State.
Mr Nurmagomedov said it came as a terrible shock.
Marat was married, his wife was pregnant and he
was financially comfortable as well. It did not seem
to make any sense.
Marat's father says he would not give up trying
to bring his son back
"The first few days I was honestly, in total shock. My
wife and I didn't know what to do. The first thing we
tried was simply contacting him although we didn't
own a smartphone at the time. When I reached him,
my first question was, why did you do this?"
This sense of bewilderment was not Mr
Nurmagomedov's alone.
It was a common feeling in fact, after 30 residents
left Karata to join IS in Syria. The authorities did little
- but the 62-year-old former businessman took a
different approach.
He decided he would go to Syria himself and track
his son down.
"Even if I was 80-years-old I would have done the
same. It was an emotional thing to do. I needed to
understand what he had done."
In 2013 he slipped into Syria and found his youngest
son training with other jihadists in Aleppo. He then
tried to persuade Marat and the rest of the unit - to
go home.
"I couldn't change (my son's) mind during my week in
Syria. He's is not like a computer, he is a human
being. They were all convinced that they were doing
the right thing, ready to die for Allah and jihad. I
could see it in their eyes."
Mr Nurmagomedov went back to Russia - but he did
not give up. Using the Whatsapp messenger on his
brand new smartphone, he persuaded his son to leave
by reminding him of his wife and child.
That was his "weak point" remarked Kazim.
Still, it took another two years to come up with a
plan to smuggle Marat out.
"I devoted all my time to it, meeting people, travelling
back and forth, to Turkey, four months in Egypt,
Moscow many times. Although I was dreaming of
coming here to plant vegetables and flowers with my
wife."
Marat managed to escape with his father's help but
he has not returned to Russia.
Instead, he is living in the shadows, in a rundown
spot in southern Ukraine - and we met the softly-
spoken 33-year-old in his spartan-looking bedsit.
He told me he could not go home.
Marat Nurmagomedov is in hiding in Ukraine after
joining IS in Syria
"I am a wanted man in Russia and I will be
immediately jailed. In Dagestan, the intelligence
services are cruel and tough and there are cases
where they killed people or tortured them to death."
You can find Marat Nurmagomedov's name is on the
Russian government's 'active terrorist list' - number
5035 to be exact - but the bespectacled ex-jihadi
says he does not pose a threat to anyone.
"No, of course not. I am not dangerous. It's against
my beliefs. Now, I now understand these people are
mistaken and they will go to hell," he says.
He is not the only former fighter holed up in Ukraine.
Community activists and analysts told us that there
are 400 to 500 ex-jihadists from Syria and Iraq in
hiding there.
The majority it's thought are Russian-speakers from
Russia or Central Asian states. They make their way
to Ukraine because they are able to communicate
and make arrangements to move on.
"They come here to get passports - Ukraine is a
corruption hub," says writer and columnist Ekaterina
Sergatskova.
"If you have real Ukrainian passport then you can
then get a biometric passport and you can move to
Europe."
Earlier this month, Ukraine inked a visa-free travel
deal with the European Union which allows its
citizens to visit most European countries for up to 90
days.
Ukraine's old-style paper passport has been upgraded,
but critics like Ms Sergatskova argue that you can
still get a fake one for a couple of thousand dollars
from a battalion of corrupt civil servants.
In response, the State Migration Service told Sky
News that the new biometric passport features mean
that "massive illegal documentation is almost
impossible".
There are up to 500 ex-jihadists from Syria and
Iraq hiding out in Ukraine
Kazim Nurmagomedov accepts that his youngest son
will not return to Karata, and at the moment he is
simply trying to keep him out of jail. But that is not
the only problem he is dealing with.
The second of his three sons, Shamil Nurmagomedov
has spent the past six months in a Russian prison on
suspicion of financing terrorism after he sent Marat
200,000 roubles (£2,640) by bank transfer in 2013.
Shamil - who is 5041 on the government's terror list -
is currently awaiting trial.
Certainly, Kazim's desire to spend time in the garden
will remain the stuff of fantasy.
When he is not trying to look after his family, he
fields calls from desperate mothers and fathers busy
searching for their own children.
In fact we were with him when one couple walked
down his overgrown driveway to see him.
Their son left for IS last year and they had not heard
from him for months.
The anxious looking pair were hoping the 62-year-old
pensioner could provide some contacts and advice,
but there was little he could say.
"I am afraid the chances are low," he told me. "I
didn't want to say it out loud but there is little hope.
If they can't get in contact for a few months he is
probably dead."

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