The savvy Russian is justifiably suspicious of the recent terror attacks in Moscow. Russians remember the September 1999 bombings that killed 293 people in Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk, ending with the Ryazan militia's investigation of an attempted bombing of an apartment building by FSB operatives on 23 September 1999. It is well known that the FSB come forward with an unbelievable public explanation, in essence, that the Ryazan bomb was a sack of sugar, and that the whole thing was an "exercise." Residents of the apartment were bought off, the police evidence was confiscated, and the local newspaper offices were burglarized. Weeks earlier, an "Islamic invasion" had been launched from Chechnya into Dagestan, which the Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Akhmad Kadyrov, described as an affair organized by the Russian Interior Ministry. Kadyrov had been a loyal Chechen patriot, that is, until he realized that the Russian security services had pumped Chechnya full of Arab Mujahidin. Kadyrov warned his countrymen that the entire Chechen Revolution had nothing to do with Chechen independence. It was a vast military exercise by the Russian General Staff in which the Chechens were puppets. From the Russian standpoint the Chechen operation was part alibi, part Maskirovka, and part diversion.
In the 7 January 2000 edition of the London Arab language paper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Kadyrov obliquely suggested that Russian generals controlled the conflict from both ends. "This is not jihad," he explained, "it is rather deception." Kadyrov said he had personally confronted Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on this issue. "I told Putin that if Russia really wanted to, not a single foreigner [i.e., al Qaeda terrorist] could have infiltrated into Chechnya or extended a single dollar to it, which means that this whole thing was deliberately planned." Putin was so impressed by Kadyrov's penetrating analysis, he made Kadyrov president of Chechnya.
And here we are, today, after another series of terrorist bombings in Russia -- followed by violence in Dagestan, and claims by Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov of responsibility for the Moscow subway bombings. Can we believe any of it? Journalist Nadezhda Banchik sent me a commentary last night, in which she asks the question, "Al-Qaeda or Lubyanka?" That is to say, are Islamists ultimately responsible for the bombings in Moscow, or did the FSB mastermind the whole thing? "I deeply understand that pain and fear in Moscow," writes Banchik, "and want to express my condolences...." Those who feel for the victims, and who understand the role played by the FSB, also find it painful to read U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "political condolences" in which she declares solidarity with Russia against "the common threat" of Islamic terrorism. "Being of ex-Soviet origin," says Banchik, "I disagree with such a stand. Prominent Russian human rights defender, member of the Presidential Council for the Human Rights and Institutions of Civil Society, Svetlana Gannushkina addressed to President Medvedev an open letter dated January 11, 2010 in which she directly pointed out the true reasons for instability in the North Caucasus." These include the kidnapping and torture of innocent civilians by Russian security forces.
According to Gannushkina, the President of Russia has given a green light to law enforcement agencies that do not bother about law, but merely "report numbers of destroyed 'bandits.'" Russia has no "due process of law," no method for distinguishing the guilty from the innocent. "We must finally realize," noted Gannushkina, "that stability would come neither to the North Caucasus nor to the whole of Russia unless law enforcement stops ignoring the law...." (https://www.hro.org/node/7163 in Russian.)
In the shadowy world of Russian intelligence, the lawless order of a totalitarian regime yet holds sway. "There are some suggestions that this horrible terror act could be masterminded [by the FSB]," wrote Banchik. "Of course, we could never get evidence to prove such a terrible allegation. However, all the most terrible terrorist acts in Russia occurred in the past at the exact moment when Russia's top officials were under fire. It was in 1999, when Putin came to power with his 'Chekists,' and the well-publicized 'Ryazan' incident suggested that the bombing attacks against apartment buildings at the time were masterminded by the FSB. Then, the tragic Nord Ost theater hostage incident [23 October 2002] happened exactly when 'the World Chechen Congress' in Copenhagen was about to demand peace talks.... Later, Anna Politkovskya found an FSB agent who worked ... to mastermind the incident. Immediately after that, the agent, Terkibaev, suddenly died on the street in Grozny in a 'car accident.'"
In a land without due process, in a land rule by the secret police, in a land whose leaders harbor a hidden agenda, there is no justice. The current state of affairs has been carefully cultivated. This garden of weeds serves a purpose, if we can only see it. Russia is the motherland of international terrorism. Russia is also the mother of so-called "Islamic terrorism." And because of this authorship, which was denied for years by a foolish CIA, the KGB successor organization finds a necessary alibi in the North Caucasus. Let Arab jihadists come flooding in. Let violence reign. We can always stomp it out later. The key thing is to fool the West. Divert the West. Because "Islamic terrorism" is the designated mask in a future Russian terror campaign against America.
Terrorism in Russia cannot be taken at face value. Describing the tragic slaughter of children at Beslan in September 2004, Banchik wrote: "We gathered a bunch of evidence suggesting that the Beslan tragedy was masterminded and handled by Putin and the FSB.... One of the most pominent Chechen human rights activists, Said Emin Ibragimov, who lives in Strasbourg, told me one story that wasn't published. One of the Ossetian hostages who was lucky enough to emigrate from Russia told him that a Chechen women who 'guarded' her during the standoff said to her that she was brought there by Russian agents from a prison where she was put a year earlier. She asked her victim to forgive her because she felt that she wouldn't survive. She told her that she was cynically deceived by a prison guard who 'promised' her release if she agreed to 'stage' a bloodless siege to force Russian authorities to peace talks."
So that's how the game is played in Russia. We must remember that this is a very Soviet game. And a KGB game as well. And it is being played for our benefit.
