Terrorism in Russia on an International Level [Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

Terrorism in Russia has existed since the Russian Empire. Its long history has brought violence against countless civilians in order to accomplish ideological or political objectives through the generation of fear and panic. Tactics so often seen in terrorism such as hostage taking saw extensive use in Soviet secret agencies. The greatest example of this was during the Great and Red Terror campaigns against their own countrymen as stated by historians like Karl Kautsky. As the end of the 20th century approached, major terrorist activity took place in the capital of Russia, Moscow. These events involved the Moscow theater hostage crisis as well as apartment bombings. Aside from Moscow, Dagestan, Chechnya, and other areas of the nation experienced terrorism. The worst part of it all is that scholars and journalists believe some of these events have been directed and planned by Russian secret services through Chechen agent provocateurs. Aside from domestic terrorism, there is also terrorism from abroad.

Islamic terrorism has become a significant threat all over the world. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France have all witnessed the effect of Islamic terrorism, and continue to with recent shootings and attacks. Russia has also had its fair share of Islamic terrorism with the majority of terrorist activity occurring in Dagestan and Chechnya. Ever since late 2007, Chechnya has abandoned its goals of becoming a sovereign state. Instead it has adopted Salafist-takfiri jihadism, an Islamic fundamentalist ideology, creating enemies for Russia and every other country. Though the Russian government has taken action by banning seventeen terrorist organizations, one of them being Al Qaeda and another, Muslim Brotherhood, there has still been little activity in deterring and preventing insurgency and terrorist activity.

In an article by Sharyl Cross, Cross shares Russia's terrorist challenge and its responses stating that with terrorists in Chechnya having international support from their Muslim counterparts in the Middle East, Russia must forge a concerted campaign with European and American leaders in order to defeat the terrorist threat. Before the events of 9/11 President Vladimir Putin had tried to place public attention on Afghanistan's terrorist training camps including the then increasing infiltration of fundamentalist and violent Islamic forces in the Balkans and Eurasia, however, most of the international public did not pay attention. It was not until 9/11 and other terrorist attacks that the world finally realized the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Although Russia has not had a large scale terrorist attack such as the United States experienced on 9/11/2001, Russia has had to deal with several smaller attacks over the past few decades a couple of the more serious ones occurring in 1999 and 2004. " ... apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk 1999, Shamil Basayev's invasion of Dagestan in 1999 proclaiming

Islamic jihad against Russia, the Dubrovka theater hostage incident in October 2002, a series of subway bombings, downing of two passenger airlines by Chechen women suicide bombers in August 2004" (Cross, 2006, p. 176). The culmination of such attacks was the Beslan school siege September 2004. Here in this heinous events, hundreds of school children died as a result of the terrorist attacks. Vladimir then fired the Regional Head of the FSB and the Interior Minister of North Ossetia, claiming Russia's security forces as incompetent.

The Beslan disaster sparked action in Putin to not just fire key people responsible for such incompetency in security, but also to centralize greater control of Russian government, regions in the country, and security structures. He also announced measures to increase his power and influence by transferring the power to appoint regional governor to himself. The Beslan attack served as a wakeup call in realizing Russia's inability to protect itself from terrorist threat with the government and security structure it had at the time. How did it get like this?

Just like the United States has an origin story for the terrorist activity that transpired in the country, so does Russia. Chechnya's struggle for independence after the dismantling of the U.S.S.R. led to an unstable relationship with Chechen and Russia. In 1858, the Chechen saw the fall of their legendary leader, Imam Shamil, who were seeking to found an Islamic state. There had long been a defiance within Chechens against the Russians and was glorified through the mountain warrior tradition of honoring the death of a soldier in battle against enemies that possessed an insurmountable advantage. As the Soviet state dismantled in 1991,...

After the two wars that were fought in Chechnya in conjunction with other conflicts in Tajikistan and South Caucasus, the events led to a surge of outside funding for military training and weapons. International whabbists and radical jihadists involvement with the country of Russia including the well-known Russian military brutality all combined to generate radicalism among Chechens.
Chechnya then became a great access hub of travel for international terrorist networks through Georgia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan. Several documents exist stating Al-Qaeda trained their member in Chechnya. Chechnya has and will continue to present challenges for the Russian government. This is especially true because of the multiple populations of Chechens in various parts of Russia due to the Russian military incursions of 96 and 99. Some of the immigrated Chechens could and have served as support and a community base for the orchestration of terrorist campaigns. So who should Russia place greater importance on as a threat, Islamic terrorists or Chechens?

In an article by Michael Radu, he asks that same question as he mentions the destruction of two Russian airliners on August 24, 2004 along with the subway station bombing. With terrorist activity happening in Russia since then and again this year with another bombed Russian airliner, it is more important than ever for Russia to realize who the greater threat is as it relates to terrorism. Chechnya has continued to remain the greatest problem for Russia. As earlier mentioned Chechnya served as a training ground and travel hub for Islamic terrorists. It has also provided motivation for those in Russia to mistreat Chechens leading to Chechen support of Islamic terrorism. What is important to understand is that the terrorist activity happening in Russia has Middle Eastern and Islamic roots and lack any real Chechen involvement other than perhaps providing support and places to train and organize. "The Islambouli brigafes, an Al Qaeda-associated group previously known for attacks in Pakistan, has taken credit for the plane and subway bombings" (Radu, 2004, p. 10).

If Russia is to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism in Russia, it has to gain control of the Chechnya borders through forming a partnership with the Chechens and other adjacent areas. It is because of Russia's political clumsiness and frequent brutality that Chechens have given up trying to coexist with Russia and instead aimed for radicalization of their people. Failure to acknowledge the supportive role Chechnya plays in Islamic terrorism and not accepting their own role in the radicalization of Chechnya has led Russia into a consistent state of blindness to their actual problems concerning terrorism. This lack of awareness and apparent denial of the Chechnya-Islamic terrorist connection has been reinforced by Russia's call to examine Islamic forces outside of the country Afghanistan, further hindering their cause. However, what is Russia fighting for? Are they fighting terrorism or Putin's enemies?

President Putin is known to be a calculating and cold man, taking out anyone he deemed an enemy. When Alexander Valterovich Litivinenko, a former Russian security service agent revealed Putin's desire to assassinate Boris Berezovky to avoid having a political foe to contend with, Livinenko later died from poisoning in 2006. "Andrei Lugovoi arrived in London on November 1, 2006, to meet with Litvinenko, who had been living in England since 2000 when the country granted him political asylum. 6 Suspiciously, November 1 is the same day Litvinenko fell ill" (Cavaliero, 2011, p. 663). This assassination shows the level of Putin's fight for power and the focus he has not on protecting Russia and its people, but to maintain power and increase his reach within the Russian government.

As earlier mentioned with some of the terrorist attacks that happened within Russia, Putin instead of assessing the situation in Chechnya and attempting to mend Russia's relationship with Chechnya, vied to gain more power. His behavior and actions clearly show he is not interested in ending terrorism, especially Islamic terrorism and instead cares about the preservation of his power at any cost, especially the cost of human lives. Putin's agenda is a major factor in the shaping of Russian terrorism in recent years and the state of Chechnya now. As the current president and former president for several years, he has yet to determine a plan of action against terrorism or with repairing the relationship Russia has with Chechnya. "It is claimed that in post-Soviet Russia there have been over 500 contract murders and terrorist acts.…