For seven minutes, five Dagestan rebels spoke into a video camera about killing infidels and how the “good deeds” they were doing would absolve them of “700 sins” committed during their lifetimes.
Filmed by a Canadian jihadist fighter before he was killed by Russian security forces, the video offers a disturbing glimpse of the fanaticism of the rebels who may have inspired Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Tsarnaev does not appear in the footage, which was obtained by the National Post. But it was recorded and narrated by William Plotnikov, a Canadian whose alleged links to Tsarnaev are now under investigation.

In the video, the rebel fighters repeatedly expressed their desire to kill “kafirs,” or non-believers, and referred to “Putins and Obamas” who “throw their speeches on television, give promises and after is death, so then we will see who is right.

“Victory comes only from Allah.”

Speaking mostly in Russian, the rebels did not disclose their location or the date, except that they were “in the forest” and looking forward to mounting large-scale attacks in the spring.

The video opens with a shot of the black flag adopted by jihadists and then pans to a rebel in camouflage cooking the evening meal. The bunker appeared well-stocked, with food, cooking utensils, bunk beds and weapons.

“What do you do?” Plotnikov asked a rebel sitting on a bed beside his assault rifle.

“Terrorism, to kill non-believers. This is what I do,” he replied. “Allah gave me fuel, a bunker, a lot of brothers. I eat and think a lot. I think how to kill them. I make a plan how to kill more non-believers, when to kill them… Something is coming concrete to you for the sake of Allah.”



The man behind the camera was a former Toronto boxer and Seneca College student who had converted to Islam in 2009 and left Canada in 2010 to join the Dagestan rebels. Alarmed by his plunge into extremism, his father called the Russian interior ministry.

Russian officers located and arrested Plotnikov in Dagestan in early 2011. Under questioning, Plotnikov reportedly named Tsarnaev as one of his online contacts, sparking investigations by both the FBI and Russia’s security service.
In the only extensive interviews he has given, Plotnikov’s father Vitaly told the National Post about a chilling online chat he had with his son after the Russians had released the young Canadian and told him to go home.

At the time of the conversation, Plotnikov was back in Moscow and wanted money. When his father asked when he would be coming home to Toronto, Plotnikov replied: “If it will be Allah’s will, possibly I will come back.”

“I told him, ‘Willy, religion is not a bad thing. It disciplines people and makes them more pure, clean. But fanaticism never was a good feature in any religion.’ And he said, ‘Honestly dad, really your eyes are closed by evil. I take the laws of God but not people.’

“But I understood that he was waiting to be called to the mountains,” the father said inside his condo near Toronto. “At that time he still was in Moscow, and they probably requested him already and he needed money to go there.”

It was the last time they communicated. Plotnikov returned to Dagestan and joined rebels in the mountains near the village of Utamysh. The video he recorded reveals an eerie zeal for the Islamist extremist narrative.
“So this is how we live,” Plotnikov said after turning the camera on himself. “We are not suffering, we are not in need. We need only Allah’s help and he does not leave us, his servants. We have food, we have someone to make that food and there are other brothers who perform their duties and this will be rewarded.

“And therefore non-believers you will never see what you would like to see. We have food. Allah is with us, we have our guardian, Allah, but you do not have one. We will kill you,” he said.

“We are not superheroes, we are also in need of Allah’s help and he is helping us and I am asking Allah that by next spring he gives us an opportunity to kill more non-believers, so the military trucks blow into pieces, fly around like rags. Allah is almighty and he will assist.”

Plotnikov, 23, was killed by Russian security forces near Utamysh on July 14, 2012. Tsarnaev returned to the United States days later. Plotnikov’s father said he doubted his son had ever met or befriended Tsarnaev, who died following a shootout with police near Boston two weeks ago.