News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

An ISIS executioner branded Russia's Jihadi John is the son of a Christian woman who came from a 'normal family', it's been reported.

Anatoly Zemlyanka, 28, dubbed 'Jihadi Vlad' has been named as the extremist who supposedly carried out a beheading in Syria after a video surfaced online this week.

The man he slaughtered is believed to be 23-year-old Russian Magomed Khasiev, who is thought to have been working as a spy in Syria.

Zemlyanka reportedly came from a 'normal' family in Noyabrsk and was a former Thai boxing competitor who loved karate while he studied at Tyumen State University between 2004 and 2009.

It was in his fifth year at university that he apparently began communicating with Muslims and converted to Islam, friends told the Siberian Times.

His mother, Svetlana Zemlyanka, 53, is believed to be an Orthodox Christian who had at least one other son and used to run a kitchenware shop, it's claimed.

Zemlyanka's old teacher claims he was a 'bad student' and told the newspaper he often had 'unsatisfactory' marks.

"He wasn't a hooligan, quite the opposite - he was demure and very ordinary," said the teacher.

(Image: vkontakte)

Magomed Khasiev, from Chechnya, allegedly travelled to the Middle East in support of ISIS.

But in a confession before his apparent killing he claimed he was acting as an informant for the Russian secret service - the FSB.

However sources have indicated to local media that there is no proof of this claim.

Khasiev was apparently born Yevgeny Yudin before he was orphaned when he was nine and adopted, taking his adoptive mother's name.

A year later he became a Muslim and went on to study law, the Daily Mail reports.

(Image: vkontakte)

He was apparently sent to ISIS via Turkey and was giving the intelligence services information from behind enemy lines, the newspaper adds.

His mother, believed to be Markha Khasiyeva, reportedly claims he did not tell her he was travelling to Syria, knowing she would not approve.

She denied knowing he had travelled to join ISIS or whether he was working for the FSB.

"He was afraid even to talk about it, he never ever said anything about it. Of course, how would he say that? He knows I am against all such things so he hasn't told me. He always said, 'You will never be ashamed of me. Whatever you hear, I'll never blacken your family'," she told MailOnline.