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Thread: Terrorism in Russia (merged thread)

  1. #21
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    Default Terrorism in Russia (merged thread)

    RFE/RL, 14 Jan 08: Russia: Court Charges Beslan Victims' Group With 'Extremism'
    ....Why authorities might seek to shut down Voice of Beslan is obvious. Russian officials have shown little compunction about using the extremism legislation to crack down on their critics. What is less clear, however, is why the charges come from Ingushetia, rather than Moscow -- and more than two years after the text's publication.

    Some see the case as a product of the ongoing tensions between North Ossetia's Christian population and the mainly Muslim Ingush following an interethnic conflict in 1992 that killed about 200 people and displaced tens of thousands.

    But Marina Litvinovich, who runs Truth of Beslan, an information website dedicated to the case, rejects this scenario. "I closely follow the activities of the Voice of Beslan committee," she says. "Its representatives never allowed themselves any comments against the Ingush people and never raised the question of the involvement of Ingush in the hostage taking."

    Whatever the motive behind the extremism charges against Voice of Beslan, stoking regional tensions in the North Caucasus will not work to the Kremlin's benefit......

  2. #22
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    Default Russia’s Counterterrorism Policy: Variations on an Imperial Theme

    Perspectives on Terrorism
    Mariya Y. Omelicheva



    For over a decade, Russia has struggled with persistent domestic insurgency and terrorism. The country has experienced a multitude of terrorist and militant attacks, and the turn of the century was marked by a series of high-profile terrorist incidents involving a large number of civilian casualties. In response to this threat, Russian authorities adopted extensive counterterrorism legislation, established and modified institutions responsible for combating terrorism, and streamlined the leadership and conduct of counterterrorist operations. According to recent statements by the present Kremlin administration, the terrorist problem in Russia has finally receded, and the war on separatism had been definitively won. Yet, the daily reports on the shoot-outs and clashes between insurgents and Russia’s security forces cast serious doubts on these official claims. Despite the signs of a slow normalization of life in Chechnya, the security situation remains tense there, and terrorist incidents and guerilla attacks have spread into the broader Southern region previously unaffected by terrorism.

  3. #23
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Pointers to expertise

    Valin,

    Not an area I watch, however this might help, although a summary: http://www.iiss.org/events-calendar/...orth-caucasus/

    You refer to one speaker's article, perhaps the other speakers writings can be found? I know Cerwyn Moore has written on this area: http://www.polsis.bham.ac.uk/about/Staff/Moore.shtml

    davidbfpo
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-15-2009 at 02:14 PM.

  4. #24
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default Sitting here at ground zero

    I would have to echo David's remarks.

    In my skeptical opinion, contemporary Russia has yet to clearly defined terrorism. They seem to have no distinction between terrorism or other violent/political crimes.

    Estonia believes that the current calm in Chechnya is largely due to the the skill of President Kadyrov and has little to do with Russian counterterrorism policy.

    I tend to agree with that belief but willing to entertain more links
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  5. #25
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Human Rights and Terrorism

    The death of another human rights activist has been reported; the link is to an article written by Amnesty International's General Secretary (contains a link to a report on the region): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/p...e-warning.html

    davidbfpo

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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    The death of another human rights activist has been reported; the link is to an article written by Amnesty International's General Secretary (contains a link to a report on the region): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/p...e-warning.html

    davidbfpo
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  7. #27
    Council Member Dayuhan's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Valin View Post
    For over a decade, Russia has struggled with persistent domestic insurgency and terrorism...
    Over a decade? I'd have said for several centuries... Russia's Chechen problem goes back a fair way.

    If "COIN literature" is ever established as a genre, Leo Tolstoy's short novel The Raid - an account of a raid on a Chechen village, based on experiences during his service in the Czar's army - will be a genre classic!

  8. #28
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Indeed somewhat more than a decade... Chechnya in 1922, 1929 and 1940 for starters and yet again in 1944 with Stalin.



    Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
    Over a decade? I'd have said for several centuries... Russia's Chechen problem goes back a fair way.

    If "COIN literature" is ever established as a genre, Leo Tolstoy's short novel The Raid - an account of a raid on a Chechen village, based on experiences during his service in the Czar's army - will be a genre classic!
    If you want to blend in, take the bus

  9. #29
    Council Member Dayuhan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Valin View Post
    The Bear is back...if the Bear ever really went away.
    Bears hibernate... and when they do, they wake up hungry. The analogy may be strained, but then again it may not be!

  10. #30
    Former Member George L. Singleton's Avatar
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    Default Chechnia historically a disloyal area for religious reasons

    In the early 1980s when I was writing my paper for USAF Command and Staff College we were focused on the fact then that the Soviet High Command in any then Fulda Gap scenario was presumed to have major loyalty and difference in languages problems with troops out of the Chechen area of the then USSR who were a part of their attack force for their side of Fulda Gap.

    The history of Russian problems in the Chechen area from 1922 forward speaks for itself. Long term problems with their Muslim population there, akin to the uncooperative and self seeking break away Pashtuns (a subset by no means all of the Pashtuns for sure) in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-31-2009 at 08:52 PM. Reason: Folda to Fulda; others too

  11. #31
    Council Member Kevin23's Avatar
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    Default Terrorism in Russia (merged thread)

    At least 37 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in Moscow that occurred this morning at 07:56 AM, according to BBC's Russian sources

    Here is a link to the story,

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8592190.stm

  12. #32
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    Default More on the twin attacks ...

    Women suicide bombers 'kill 38' in Moscow Metro attacks

    and

    FSB Suspects North Caucasus Link In Deadly Moscow Bombings

    and

    Why have the Moscow bombers struck now

    and

    No Time to Count the Dead, Only to Save the Injured


    However, as Robert Amsterdam points out;
    It is certainly not difficult to conceive that the double terrorist bombing committed on the Moscow metro this morning was orchestrated by militant Muslim groups from Chechnya, Dagestan, or Ingushetia (or another part of the North Caucasus). Further, it seems irrelevant to question it given the claims of responsibility (or at least applause) already posted on kavkazcenter.com.

    Still, it is strange how the FSB reached the conclusion:

    The chief of the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, told President Dmitry Medvedev: "Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found...and according to initial data, these persons are linked to the North Caucasus."

    I am just curious how a body part displays its geographic point of origin ... was it a tattoo, physical typology, bomb technology, or article of clothing which is unique to the area? In an earlier report I had read (and cannot find now), Bortnikov talked about DNA testing of the body parts and amazingly fast test results ... which of course made me think about the FSB's proposal to fingerprint and DNA catalog the entire population of Chechnya.

    This isn't to suggest the entertainment of crass conspiracy theories, but more an observation of the Kremlin's habits in terms of disaster management - provide as little official information as possible to the public. I recall the Madrid train bombings of 2004 which were initially pinned upon the separatist group ETA, but later revelations of Al-Qaeda carrying out the attacks cost the ruling party its election and resulted in the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.

    The Kremlin most likely jumped to the right and obvious conclusion, but there was still a jump.

  13. #33
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
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    Default Chutzpah...

    One of the bombs was at Lubyanka Station underneath Lubyanka Square which is currently home to FSB’s HQ, and was previously the HQ for the KGB.

  14. #34
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    This slate piece (http://www.slate.com/id/2249122/) made me remember a more serious article about female members of jihadi terrorist cells, written by someone in Europe, cannot recall the title. It was about how they are trying to assert their "agency" and can become much more than the usual image of the submissive Muslim woman by joining these cells....does anyone know what article I am talking about?

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    Shamil Basayev keeps paying dividends for the Caucasus Emirate.
    Vae Victus

  16. #36
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Female suicide bombers - a clue?

    Quote Originally Posted by omarali50 View Post
    This slate piece (http://www.slate.com/id/2249122/) made me remember a more serious article about female members of jihadi terrorist cells, written by someone in Europe, cannot recall the title. It was about how they are trying to assert their "agency" and can become much more than the usual image of the submissive Muslim woman by joining these cells....does anyone know what article I am talking about?
    Try following this link (which has appeared before on a thread n Suicide Bombing IIRC): http://www.iiss.org/conferences/coun...ope/?locale=en

    Sounds like the work you seek is Dr Anne Speckhard of the Free University, Brussels; IIRC has her own website. Good luck.
    davidbfpo

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    Default David is correct..

    Anne Speckhard (US Academic) has written fairly extensively on this. Probably the best articles of hers on the subject are:

    Speckhard, A, and K Ahkmedova. "The Making of a Martyr: Chechen Suicide Terrorism." Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 29, no. 5 (2006): 429-92, available @: http://www.annespeckhard.com/publica...ing_Martyr.pdf

    and

    Speckhard, A, and K Akhmedova. "Black Widows: The Chechen Female Suicide Terrorists." Female Suicide Terrorists (2005).
    available @:
    http://www.uwed.uz/library/files/black_widows.pdf

    There's also a reasonably good book by Rosemarie Skaine called, orignally enough, 'Female Suicide Bombers'.

  18. #38
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    Russian newspaper "Kommersant" says that approximately 20 female bombers are on the run.

    At present time their search is going on in Ingushetia.

    http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1345549

  19. #39
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    Default Interesting point regarding the efficacy of suicide tactics

    In an article written by Anne Speckhard she makes the following observation which, IMO, is usually ingnored when suicide bombing is discussed (usually in favour of the usual suspects like economic disenfranchisement, poverty, ignorance, self-destructive thanatos drives, et al)...
    Sucide terrorism is a tactic that is...In endless supply if the terror group's constituent population supports the use of this tactic.(p.5)
    Link is broken for some reason; the article can be "googled" as Genesis of Suicide Terrorism in the Encyclopedia of Stress.
    Last edited by Tukhachevskii; 03-30-2010 at 10:03 AM. Reason: Link broken

  20. #40
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Stats: part of the background

    In the wake of coordinated suicide attacks on the Moscow subway system on March 29, 2010, START has compiled background information on terrorist activity related to this attack....(at the end) These data were collected and compiled from the Global Terrorism Database (www.start.umd.edu/gtd).
    The GTD contains information on more than 80,000 terrorist incidents that have occurred around the world since 1970.
    Link:http://www.start.umd.edu/start/annou...w%20subway.pdf
    davidbfpo

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