MOSCOW, March 30 (RAPSI) – Over 300 cases have been opened against Russian nationals who joined international terrorist groups, the Islamic State (ISIS) and Hizb ut-Tahrir among them, Vladimir Makarov, deputy head of the Interior Ministry Department on Extremism, said on Monday.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamic political party founded in 1953 in Eastern Jerusalem. Russia’s Supreme Court officially declared its activity as terrorist in February 2003. 

On December 29, 2014, Russia's Supreme Court ruled that the Islamic State be added to the terrorism blacklist. 

The rapid growth of ISIS, which has taken control of large areas in Iraq and Syria, became a major global threat in 2014. The CIA estimates that the group includes some 30,000 militants. ISIS has declared a caliphate in the seized territories and is seeking to expand its boundaries.