The Islamic State has released a new video threatening Vladimir Putin for his support and arming of Syrian president Bashar Assad.
The video, which is believed to have been recorded at the Taqba airbase captured from Assad forces, shows Islamic State members standing atop what they say are Russian aircraft supplied to the Syrian government.
“I’d like to convey a message to Vladimir Putin,” one of the jihadists says. “Vladimir Putin, these are the Russian planes you sent to Bashar. Allah willing, we will take them back to your own turf and liberate Chechnya and the Caucasus. . . . The Islamic State is here to stay. It is spreading, and has become a caliphate. Your throne is being threatened by us. Allah will grant us success.”
In response to the video, Chechen leader and Putin confidant Ramzan Kadyrov vowed that the Islamic State would be destroyed:
The Muslim strongman, who has fought Islamic militants in his backyard for years, seemed to take special umbrage at a threat aimed at his patron in Moscow.
“I state with full responsibility that the one who had the idea to express a threat to Russia and say the name of the president of the country Vladimir Putin, will be destroyed, where he did it,” Kadyrov seethed. “I emphasize that they finish their days under the hot sun in Syria and Iraq, and in the first instant of death meet their eternal flames of Hell. Allahu Akbar!”