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Russia's Domestic Security Nightmare
The National Interest ^ | December 31, 2013 | Dimitri K. Simes, Paul J. Saunders

Posted on 12/31/2013 2:42:25 AM PST by cunning_fish

The two terrorist attacks in Volgograd, Russia—on consecutive days—are a true tragedy. The twin bombings have killed dozens and have wounded many more. Both American values and American interests compel the United States to condemn the attacks and express support for Russia’s people and government in dealing with extremist terrorism.

While the appropriate immediate U.S. response is clear, however, Russia’s response to terrorism has been uncertain and a mixed success. The recent attacks in Volgograd followed another bombing in the city in October and occurred in the context of regular domestic terrorism throughout Russia, including in its capital Moscow. This raises an apparently paradoxical question: how have terrorist attacks become commonplace in what many outside the country view as a police state?

On one level, Russia’s leadership team must be among the most experienced in the world in dealing with domestic security. President Vladimir Putin is not only a former KGB officer, but also briefly led the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Soviet KGB’s successor agency, before assuming his current post. His Kremlin chief of staff, Sergey Ivanov, has a similar background, as does Nikolai Patrushev, who heads Russia’s Security Council. And Russia has been quite successful in other areas—just look at its foreign policy, where Mr. Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov turned weak cards into winning hands in both Syria and Ukraine in 2013, in no small part by understanding others’ limitations.

Nevertheless, Russia’s officials have not yet found an effective approach to maintaining domestic security—one of the most basic functions of government. How can this be?...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: dierusskiesdie; globaljihad; jihad; pulloutofsyria; putinsbuttboys; russia; terrorism; terrorists; volgograd; waronterror; whocares

1 posted on 12/31/2013 2:42:26 AM PST by cunning_fish
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To: cunning_fish

It’s sad that terrorism, promoted by the USSR (communists), has outlived its creator, and now is being used against the successor.


2 posted on 12/31/2013 3:11:17 AM PST by Cowboy Bob (They are called "Liberals" because the word "parasite" was already taken.)
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To: Cowboy Bob

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

I expect the U.S. will be targets for similar “copycat” attacks.


3 posted on 12/31/2013 3:35:47 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: cunning_fish

Heard this story yesterday, not sure of its veracity: Around 1980, the Russian Foreign Minister, Dobrynin, was asked what would Russia do had their diplomates been captured with some embassy staff killed in Teheran. Dobrynin said it is 11am, by 1PM there would be no Teheran.

Note, no Russian embassies were ever taken. Message sent, message received.


4 posted on 12/31/2013 3:47:11 AM PST by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: cunning_fish

The article goes out of it’s way to excuse islamic terrorism. It’s not really their fault—they were forced into it.


5 posted on 12/31/2013 3:49:04 AM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: cunning_fish

“This raises an apparently paradoxical question: how have terrorist attacks become commonplace in what many outside the country view as a police state?”

Because it’s not a police state. But internet experts, mostly from the West, think otherwise. There was a time when i tried to argue with them. How stupid of me.

“First, Russia has over 10 million Muslim citizens and while the vast majority are moderate and peaceful, many—especially in the North Caucasus—resent Russian rule. “

Define “many”.

“On top of this, many of Russia’s Muslims live in poorer regions or face hostility when they travel or work elsewhere “

My immediate head of department is a muslim.
I need to tell him that.

” Moreover, unlike in the United States or Europe, many of Russia’s Muslims live in predominantly Muslim regions with sometimes-rough terrain”

So, all these reports about regions in England and France, that consist entirely of emigrants ( who are forcing their ways against native population and have no respect for even police officers) are propaganda, right?

“The Russian government imposes significant limits on civil liberties”

Such as? Do “experts” in the West really belive that if i type “Putin is a moron” i will be shot or put under lock?

“the terrorism challenge is magnified by pervasive corruption that turns roadside checkpoints into tollbooths and neighborhood sweeps into shakedowns.”

True.
But this is a legace, first of all, of time of Yeltsin rule - time so many of Western experts praise and most of our people hate and depsise (i, of course, never presume to speak for entire russian nation, but this time, i belive, i can).

“Russia’s police and security agencies could face significant public backlash if they tried the same tactics, especially based on an anonymous tip.”

Yeah... kinda no. At least, not from my “vantage point”.


6 posted on 12/31/2013 4:17:55 AM PST by Vostok-1
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To: freeangel
One of the dirty little secrets over there is that the Chechen separatist movement has been supported by "neo-conservatives" in the U.S. for years.

"War on Terror," my @ss.

7 posted on 12/31/2013 4:18:15 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: Cowboy Bob
Blowing up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror
by Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, Geoffrey Andrews and Co (Translator)

Synopsis: Blowing Up Russia contains the allegations of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko against his former spymasters in Moscow which led to his being murdered in London in November 2006. In the book he and historian Yuri Felshtinsky detail how since 1999 the Russian secret service has been hatching a plot to return to the terror that was the hallmark of the KGB. Vividly written and based on Litvinenko's 20 years of insider knowledge of Russian spy campaigns, Blowing Up Russia describes how the successor of the KGB fabricated terrorist attacks and launched a war. Writing about Litvinenko, the surviving co-author recounts how the banning of the book in Russia led to three earlier deaths.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Blowing-up-Russia/Alexander-Litvinenko/e/9781594032011

8 posted on 12/31/2013 4:43:29 AM PST by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Alberta's Child

Fox just reported on F&F (Steve Ducie) that the obama administration was actually financing al qaeda in Libya and paying them with weapons and cash and that is why the Benghazi coverup is trying to be resurrected... obama and clinton are BOTH guilty of treason... or would have been 100 years ago. The rats also are trying to remove the death penalty for treason... it is all adding up now!


9 posted on 12/31/2013 4:44:39 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: LibLieSlayer

Go back even further than that. Our government has effectively been bought and paid for by the Saudi royal family for decades.


10 posted on 12/31/2013 5:10:28 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: cunning_fish

Putin: Western leaders should unite against Christian persecution

Who would have ever thought............

11 posted on 12/31/2013 5:46:17 AM PST by SkyPilot
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To: Mouton

I remember that meeting. Your story is correct.


12 posted on 12/31/2013 5:57:10 AM PST by bill1952 (Choice is an illusion created between those with power - and those without)
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To: Cowboy Bob

It worth to note that modern islamic extremism was shaped by the British intelligence in mid-1940s as a tool to contain Soviet and American influence in the Middle East.
It is not a secret, thus rarely spoken that Israel as it is was a project of Stalin’s foreign policy.
Mossad itself is modeled after earlier Soviet NKVD (later known as KGB) and was stuffed by former Soviet SMERSH agents, earlier Israel’s Air Force was trained by Soviets and Israel’s earlier military was armed with German weapons funneled via Czechoslovakia by the Soviets.
Both Churchill and FDR (being under Chrchill’s influence) initially opposed the plan viewing Israel as a communist conspiracy.
For Churchill Israel was a new player, undermining British Empire in the Middle East, and he pushed FDR an idea that Israel should not happen as a potential Soviet client to make a comminist outreach into area.
At the end FDR has surrrendered to US Jewish lobby who also pushed for a Soviet plan and he screwed Churchill. Fortunatelly a project of Israel was hijacked from the Soviets by the US using said Jewish lobby but it hasn’t made the British any happier because pro-American Israel was as much a threat for a British imperialism as a Soviet in the area.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir aka paleo-Al-Qaeda was the first islamist terrorist organization as we know it with car bombs, airplane hijacking and hostage taking. It was inspired by the British and fully controlled by them at the time. An idea was to push arround US, Soviets and Israel (as soon as Israel’s position as either US or a Soviet client wasn’t certain for anyone at the time). British idea was to keep leverage forcing either of said players to appeal to them as the way to counter terror. Needless to say the the Brits outplayed their hand greatly. Soviets has later hijacked elements of their network thus noone is actually able to fully control a monster these days.


13 posted on 12/31/2013 6:17:23 AM PST by cunning_fish
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To: Alberta's Child

Yes, I remember both bush men groveling before those sand demons.


14 posted on 12/31/2013 6:18:01 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: cunning_fish

I wonder if Putin will be blunt with the FSB (formerly KGB) and related agencies, to put the blocks to these radical Islamists.

The US was really cozying up to Uzbekistan, when they suddenly had a revolt by radical Islamicists. After violently putting down the revolt, instead of just shooting one of their revolting leaders, they made the mistake of boiling him in a big cauldron. Totally not p.c. So the US broke off relations, which is a pity.

However, the Uzbekis understood radical Islamists more than we did, dealing with them in the Asiatic fashion, which was understood and appreciated by all in the region.

The Russians have kind of a split personality between the Europeans and the Asians. Hopefully Putin will deal with these terrorists in an Asian way, but discreetly. If he has them boiled in cauldrons, at least it will be done out of the limelight.


15 posted on 12/31/2013 7:10:26 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Last Obamacare Promise: "If You Like Your Eternal Soul, You Can Keep It.")
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