MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - 55 percent of Russians consider the establishment of an Islamic caliphate by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group on Iraqi and Syrian soil to be a regional and global security threat, according to a survey carried out by the Moscow-based Levada Center and released on Monday.
According to the poll, 23 percent of Russians are confident that the IS represent a danger for international security, while another 32 percent gave a less certain, but also affirmative answer to a question on whether the IS is a global threat.
Furthermore, 54 percent of respondents expressed disapproval of US-led airstrikes against IS targets. In addition, 23 percent of those surveyed believed that in the future NATO or the United States is likely to intervene in the Syrian internal conflict on the side of anti-Assad forces.
Started in 2011, the Syrian Civil War has killed over 191,000 people, according to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
The IS radical Sunni group has seized vast areas across Iraq and Syria and proclaimed an Islamic caliphate on areas it controls in June. The rapid advance of the IS fighters has led to Washington launching airstrikes against the terrorists in Iraq in August, extending them to Syria a month later.
