MOSCOW, May 21 (RAPSI) - The Supreme Court of Dagestan has sentenced a resident of Dagestan to four years in prison for creating a terrorist group and for recruiting people into it via social networking sites, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on Tuesday.

The court held that 25-year-old Timur Dashtiyev from Russian southern republic of Dagestan decided to create an illegal armed group to fight local law-enforcement agencies in June 2011.

"He recruited three people into his jihad through social networking sites, although they later abandoned their criminal intent," the prosecutors said. The court accepted the prosecution's arguments and sentenced Dashtiyev to four years in a high security penal colony.

Recently, President Vladimir Putin called upon the law enforcement authorities to rally against the growing threat of extremism. In a March speech before the Prosecutor General's board meeting, he declared that "They are holding public rallies, spreading their propaganda on the Internet, and recruiting supporters almost openly. It is your direct responsibility to address in the most definite and uncompromising way any attempts to incite ethnic and religious hatred, and to promote xenophobia and chauvinism."