Watch | How Russia’s crackdown on Muslims gives IS new recruits

Two decades of Russia's war on Islamic insurgency in Dagestan has given rise to a culture of violence and police profiling that has pushed conservative religious groups to the margins of society and into the jaws of the IS.

Some in Dagestan believe that security agencies not only fail to stop local men from going off to Syria, but often encourage them.

When Russia began its bombing campaign in Syria in late September, president Putin said one of the goals was to prevent Russian citizens fighting with the Islamic state from returning.

But most young people who flee Dagestan, escaping repression and police persecution, have no intention of ever coming back.