Terror Returns to Russia: What Will Putin Do? (Updated)
(Update: Shortly before this article published, Vladimir Putin held his annual Q&A with Russian reporters. When asked about last week’s IED attack on the train, and the Islamic terrorists who have now claimed responsibility, Putin promised to “break the spine” of terrorism. When asked if he was planning on leaving office anytime soon, Putin responded, “Don’t hold your breath.”)
It has been years since terrorists were able to strike Russia anywhere outside the Muslim North Caucasus region, where terrorists train and suicide bombings are commonplace. That changed on November 27, when an IED attack on the Nevsky Express, a luxury Moscow-to-St. Petersburg commuter train, left 30 people dead and about 100 more injured. The explosion happened 250 miles northwest of Moscow on a train popular with business executives, government officials, and tourists. At least two high-ranking Russian officials were among the dead.
Now that Moscow is again in the terrorists’ crosshairs, the question on everyone’s mind is: how will the Russian government respond?
“Everyone’s nerves are at the limit,” President Dmitry Medvedev announced on state TV. So what will Putin do?
This same train had been targeted by terrorists two years ago, in August 2007. In that instance, no one was killed. Sixty people were injured, six seriously, in a very close call. The IED in that attack exploded adjacent to a 60-foot bridge, and the train just barely cleared the bridge before it derailed. This time, the terrorists planted two bombs. According to Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, officers found pieces of a second device, partially exploded, during rescue operations.
The North Caucasus has long been a safe haven for terrorists. Most notably, in the late 1990s, the region produced master terrorist Shamil Basayev, al-Qaeda’s Russian proxy and the man responsible for killing hundreds of Russian civilians before he was assassinated by the Russian Federal Security Service in 2006. Shamil Basayev was behind the Moscow theater siege in 2002, the three-day school siege at Beslan in 2005, and a hospital siege in 1995. In those three attacks alone, nearly 2,000 people were taken hostage by terrorists acting on Basayev’s orders. In total, more than 540 people died, including 184 schoolchildren in Beslan. For years, the Kremlin couldn’t stop his attacks.
If the Russian government wants dictatorial powers, wouldn’t attacks like this be really helpful?
If the Russian government wants dictatorial powers, wouldn’t attacks like this be really helpful?
That doesn’t mean they were Putin’s work. While we are at it there were looooooots of funny things in the investigation about Madrid bombings like if Zapatero jhad something to hide about evidence who wasn’t at certain places and then was suddenly “found” at the best electoral moment (rememeber that the bombings brought Zapatero to power). That doesn’t mean that the peole planting the evidence were behind the bombings.
Ten years ago, a series of mysterious apartment building explosions in Russia was used by newly appointed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to launch the Second Chechen War. (Aug.’99-April ’09)
(Although the Russian military eventually managed to defeat the Chechen rebels and reestablish Russian control over the break-away republic, it was not until much of the capital, Grozny, lay in ruins, with both sides accused of committing atrocities.)
Though six Muslims were eventually tried and sentenced for the bombings, the crime remains officially unsolved, with agents of the Russian Federal Security Service or FSB (the successor to the Soviet-era KGB) suspected of involvement.
Those who dare investigate the FSB’s alleged role in the bombings have had the nasty habit of winding up imprisoned, dead, or both – most notably, former KGB officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/russia/2009/russia-090909-rferl01.htm
As Iran continues pursuing nuclear weapons, (with Russian complicity, if not outright assistance), and Russia attempts to reestablish hegemony over its former Soviet satellites, it will be interesting to see how Putin balances the conflicting need to crush any nascent Islamic insurgency within the former Russian empire, and his desire to assert Russian influence over its increasingly dangerous Persian client.
In addition to the Saudi/Wahhabist link to the attacks of 9/11, what role, if any, did the Islamists operating within the former Soviet republics play in the attacks on that fateful day?
What role might they play any future attacks?
In The Price of Liberty – A Novel, the page-turning, edge-of-your-seat political-military thriller by T.W. Elliott, LCDR USNR (Ret.), the tentacles of Islamo-fascism spread from the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Chechnya, from Bosnia and Beirut, to the Twin Towers of New York and the Pentagon.
Could Al-Qaeda and their Islamic “brothers-in-arms” be planning on finishing the job started on that sad day?
Read The Price of Liberty – A Novel, by T.W. Elliott, LCDR USNR (Ret.) and find out.
Available at: http://www.amazon.com
What will Putin do? Chalk up the dead to the price of Russian firms doing business with Iran, and any other Muslim country.
When it comes to Cold eyes, Mao had nothing on Putin or Al Gore.
After all, Russian businesses are up to their necks in Iran’s drive for nuclear weaponry, and they are hardly alone.
Seeing that those businesses pay taxes, the Kremlin doesn’t mind so much about how dirty the money is, as long as it gets its fair share. Mind you, the definition of fair share according to the Kremlin isn’t always shared by others.
For a start perhaps Putin could stop selling defensive missile systems to the main progenitors of terrorism,i.e. Iran. Duh!
bizarrely this was the specific train that russian “officials” are using
We also had such “fool” leftists that “tried” to put bombs under our TGV lines, but apparently, they are less clever, the bombs didn’t blow up, and they couldn’t prevent themselves from making the apology of their acts on news papers
3@T.W. Elliott
I walked by that apartment in visiting a friend, only noticing one day it was rubble. And yes FSB agents were seen scurrying out just prior to the building being detonated, and over thirty were murdered. It could have been my friend’s apartment as they are adjacent buildings.
Spinning that into some fictional Al-Qaeda and unrelated murder of Litvinenko does little for your credibility. Indeed it highlights the fact that you’re part of the problem, as you clearly support the Vatican war on Islam.
Putin faces a severe risk, since many of the cold-eyed killers beneath him could challenge him on the grounds that THEY would do a better job of protecting the people. He looks weak, not the least to those who if they sense weakness would kill him in a heartbeat to seize the power and the money.
That’s the downside of living like Saddam or Stalin. You are only as secure as the fear you inspire and the money for the thug army you provide.
So Putin HAS TO ACT. Indeed his deal with Iran is part of it, info on the Chechens and AQ (the Iranians are well informed on both) traded for arms and protection. He is likely to have good intelligence from the Iranians who need Russian protection on who and what, and also the where.
Expect the bodies to pile up as Putin unleashes his Special Forces on whoever, wherever they are.
The attack itself required outside help, the Chechens likely were too decimated to stage this by themselves (it required likely a pre-positioning team of weapons and explosives, extensive target surveillance, considerable bribery, and escape routes for the actual trigger-men who have not been caught). All beyond the capabilities of the current Chechens, particularly the financial stuff. It screams either professional Intelligence/Paramilitary service like Pakistan’s ISI and the Bombay attack, or AQ (the only terrorist group wealth and professional enough to stage this). Indeed I would not rule out elements of Pakistan’s ISI and AQ cooperating with the Chechens. THEY don’t fear the wrath of Putin.
It is Putin’s survival to change that. Instilling raw fear.
We will know if I am right if bodies of suspected AQ and ISI people start piling up in various places, including Africa, Central Asia, the Gulf, and so on.
“…unrelated murder of Litvinenko?”
I guess you didn’t read the link.
And as for the Vatican’s war on Islam, when was the last time the Swiss Guard beheaded anyone?
T.W. Elliott
Putin is a dissapointment in that he is a business partner, thus an ally of Iran’s bloodthirsty leader. In the U.S., many of us thought we could finally put our differences behind us when Putin and President Bush were having meetings; oh how Putin “was playing us like a violin”.
It doesn’t bother me one bit though if Putin goes into ANY Al Queda stronghold and carpet bombs them all.
The Islam bloodlust must be stopped all over the world and I’m impatient with our new U.S. soft handed approach by our wimp of a President. He has taken away all the Bush era tools to fight terrorism, yet expects terrorism to be defeated??? Only a liberal could understand and embrace that theology.
you clearly support the Vatican war on Islam
By your logic it was America’s war on Japan.
BTW, Monsieur Kochevnik,
Ever heard of the Seven Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon?
Though I do not reside in the former USSR, I also have a connection to Volgadansk, as my brother is married to a Russian woman who is originally from your city.
The tragic part about the ongoing Chechnyan conflict – the larger war on Islamic terror being no exception – is the fact that it’s the innocent civilian whose life is most frequently torn apart.
Sadly, the same can be said about most of history’s conflicts.
No matter what language, no matter what religion, no matter what country or culture, most human beings just want to live their lives in peace and raise their children.
As for your defense of Islam, when the majority of “moderate Muslims” finally stand up and unequivocally condemn the murderous acts of the militant few, then maybe your protestations to the contrary would ring more true.
T.W. Elliott
Terror returns to Russia? When did it leave?
Great, here come the equivalent for Russia of the 9/11 truthers for the U.S…
Russian media is already saying that one of the suspects in the Tver region village before the bombing wasn’t particularly Caucasian looking and spoke a language other than Russian. Plus they had a female accomplice.
Given all the support most here don’t want to acknowledge that Russia has lent to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan (aha, another dirty trick by the re-Evil Empire to get us bogged down in their former quagmire!), starting with the logistical lifeline for the troops now that Pakistan cannot be trusted, I’d think Pakistan’s ISI or their pals would be a pretty strong bet.
The ISI types probably feel that if India cannot punish them in their front yard for sponsoring killers who shoot up Mumbai what are the Russians going to do from so far away? But they may find out the hard way that Russia has more options to hit back than they think it does.
But my real question is, when that happens, will any PJMers be cheering them on? Or are Russian victims of jihadi terrorism somehow less important than victims in Tel Aviv, Mumbai, and New York?
Putin is a Nationalist. Yes, he will kill the enemy. This is the part I like about him.
War is hell. I hope Putin destroys every Mosque in Russia, and deports every Muslim not involded with helping the terrorists.
involded=involved.
Over.
11@Deborah
>Putin is a dissapointment
Or perhaps westerners as you are the “dissapointment” living in your little myopic fishbowl, forever parroting MSM lies. The West has been a great disappointment to Russia and Putin only tolerates your escapades in our backyard because of temporarily convergent interests.
13@T.W. Elliott:
>No matter what language, no matter what religion, no matter what country
>or culture, most human beings just want to live their lives in peace and
>raise their children.
It can be argued that most humans want to live their lives in ignorance and lash out with nuclear fascism toward enemies fashioned by the Vatican in it’s 500 year plans. Russia has suffered greatly under Jesuit communism. If only enough minds could be made free, this scourge could be flushed from the earth.
>As for your defense of Islam, when the majority of “moderate Muslims”
>finally stand up and unequivocally condemn the murderous acts of the
>militant few, then maybe your protestations to the contrary would
>ring more true.
I’d like to point out that Muslims are acting under the old testament, which again proves that religion is a mental disease. Was it not the Vatican that burned 18million heretics alive under catholic priest Hitler and Sedes Sacrorum Nazi Knight Himmler? Where does hysteria end and enlightened genocide begin? I don’t see that line.
Russians don’t need motivation to hem in fundamentalists. Yet it seems the Kremlin sometimes does not stop terrorists as the bloodshed justifies Kremlin war policy. Or perhaps the intelligence really is bad. There are a lot of bombings that don’t make the Western press. There’s a fine line between moderates and radicals but as the West pursues wars against Islam Russia suffers the brunt of the backlash.
12@JFM
>By your logic it was America’s war on Japan.
Yes in fact the Jesuit war of retribution against Japan was enacted by the US. Most poignant was the symbolic act of nuclear immolation over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which the Vatican endorses for heretics.
Kovchevnik
I think you should consider moving to a place where there water pipes don’t contain lead.
#16. Amen!
Wow, kochevnik’s posts just keep getting more and more bizarre. Somehow the pagan, married Hitler was a Catholic priest, even though he killed many Catholic priests in the Holocaust. Somehow Stalin was a Jesuit priest though he was expelled from seminary, and somehow the Vatican plotted America’s entry into WWII and nuclear bombing of Japan, even though Japan instigated the war and Catholics were not in control of the high command of either country. Still, what can one expect from a future Antichrist worshiper, which is exactly the course he is on when he says kill all the Christians.
“1. Bob Miller:
If the Russian government wants dictatorial powers, wouldn’t attacks like this be really helpful?
‘
You mean like Obama’s Fort Hood attack? Just substitute obama government for Putin.
Get real. The world faces an islamic war on us. The sooner the world faces that fact, and goes into WW III mode against islam like we did the nazi’s the better. Funny we are Putin’s ally in this as were we Stalin’s ally.
Till then I hope you like dyin’.
“4. David W. Lincoln:
What will Putin do? Chalk up the dead to the price of Russian firms doing business with Iran, and any other Muslim country.
When it comes to Cold eyes, Mao had nothing on Putin or Al Gore.”
Why not, seems All our presidents since Reagan(maybe even him) have chalked it up so. As for cold eyes.. we have a reptile as pres now too.
Maybe Putin should convene a Russian-Muslim round table so the two sides can reach an understanding. That is called “the community organizer method” of dealing with problems.
24. Only if by “understanding,” you mean threaten them with nuclear annihilation.