'STOP ISIS Terror' Sign
A Kurdish protester sits behind a sign reading " STOP ISIS terror" in front of the United Nations headquarters in Vienna October 9, 2014. A group of Kurdish people living in Austria are on hunger strike since Monday in solidarity for Syrian Kurds who are fighting to defend the Syrian-Turkey border town of Kobane from Islamic State militants. Reuters/Leonhard Foeger

Russia has reportedly arrested Moscow's notoriously bloodthirsty "Grand Theft Auto" gang on Saturday. But the real twist is that the criminals have close links with the Islamic State group. The arrest of these ISIS-linked gangsters further heightened Russia's concerns over the domestic threat being posed by the Islamic outfit whose violent ideology, as feared by Russia, may radicalise the local Muslims, particularly the migrant workers from central Asian states.

Deadly GTA Gang

The GTA Gang had been terrorising Moscow for many years and is responsible for murders of at least 14 people on Moscow's highways, reports Rferl News. .The arrests were first reported by LifeNews, a pro-Kremlin media outlet, which said 14 members were held in a series of arrests by the "spetznaz" of the Rapid Response Unit. During the arrest, one gang member was killed when he tried to hurl a hand grenade at the police.

LifeNews quoted a police official saying that the gang leaders were also into recruiting supporters for ISIS to be sent as fighters to Syria. The "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Web site identified the arrested gangsters as migrant workers from former Soviet Central Asian republics. It said, they came to Moscow "from Kyrgyzstan." The "Moskovskiy Komsomolets," Web site named the suspect who died after throwing the grenade as Usmanov, a 32-year-old Uzbek national allegedly having "close links with ISIS."

ISIS Threat

According to a poll conducted by Russian polling organisation FOM, one fourth of Russians think ISIS is a real threat to Russia. A Chechen analyst, Mairbek Vatchagaev, recalled an Internet clip where there was an Arabic-speaking ISIS militant shouting that the group would fly back to Russia to liberate Chechnya. Vatchagaev argued that ISIS militants in Syria may not pose a threat to Russian interests, but their ideology can. He said Russia is on the edge of an Islamic time bomb and also referred to the actions of security authorities in shutting down all pro-ISIS accounts on the social media site VKontakte.

NATO Ploy

At the same time, many Russian officials believe that some leaders of Islamic terrorists are under the influence of NATO and Western powers in threatening Russia, reports RT. "There is reason to suspect that American and British special services could be supporting Islamic extremists to target the Russian Federation," Lieutenant-General Nikolai Pushkaryov, formerly of the Central Intelligence Directorate, told RIA-Novosti.

The general also referred to the statement made by the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, who vowed to destroy any Islamic terrorist threatening Russia. The Chechen Special Services are armed to hunt down any ISIS militant daring to disturb Russia and "who may be working in collusion with the U.S and CIA,"