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[Ukrainian Ranger]

Meanwhile, Russia is hit by a string of terrorist attacks: yesterday, a suicide bombing hit Volgograd's main railroad terminal, killing 17, this morning, a suicide bomber blew up a trolleybus full of people during rush hour in Volgograd, killing 14.

Leader of Caucasus Emirate Doka Umarov lifted his own 1.5 year long moratorium on terror acts and called his men to prevent the Olympics.

His direct quote:
“They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many Muslims buried on our land by the Black Sea. As Mujahideen we are required not to permit that, using any methods that Allah allows us”

So, that's only the beginning

[shadenight123]

I wonder. Is this going to turn out as a 'Russia can do what America cannot' contest for propaganda soon enough?
The American's war on terror is one thing.
Now, it's the Russian's turn to show us what they can do.

[LordSlowpoke]

I wonder. Is this going to turn out as a 'Russia can do what America cannot' contest for propaganda soon enough?
The American's war on terror is one thing.
Now, it's the Russian's turn to show us what they can do.

Pff, Russia lost a war with Afghanistan before it was cool. America's just copying them now, China's probably going to find a reason to invade like the posers they are too..

[Owlbread]

Meanwhile, Russia is hit by a string of terrorist attacks: yesterday, a suicide bombing hit Volgograd's main railroad terminal, killing 17, this morning, a suicide bomber blew up a trolleybus full of people during rush hour in Volgograd, killing 14.

It is a popular opinion among many non-liberal Russians dating back to the 1990s (which haven't been acknowledged by the Russian government in any way) that the radical Wahhabi Islamists from the government of Saudi Arabia are organizing and sponsoring attacks committed by Chechen terrorists. There's a lot of comments on various Russian news sites calling for the Russian leadership to "wipe those Saudi bastards off the face of the Earth with nuclear weapons"*. However, as the Russian saying goes, God didn't give horns to a mad cow: the Russian government isn't particularly keen on starting World War III, no matter what trigger-happy Russian patriots think.

*when Britain starts acting against Russia, the same people call for nuclear attack on Britain, when the USA starts doing the same... you get the idea.

I've regularly met Russian fellows who have explained to me that the problem is always foreign nations seeking to undermine or destroy Russia, usually the USA or on occasion the UK. I don't know if that's a feeling still left over from Soviet times, or even the various times that Russia has been invaded by other nations that have indeed sought to destroy it. There's a real possibility that the Saudis, Qataris and all the rest are funding the Chechens but it's also conceivable that they're staging a popular movement off their own backs. If they were getting better funding they wouldn't be faffing about in the woods in bands of 5, killing a pro-Russian school teacher or something every now and then.

Leader of Caucasus Emirate Doka Umarov lifted his own 1.5 year long moratorium on terror acts and called his men to prevent the Olympics.

His direct quote:
“They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many Muslims buried on our land by the Black Sea. As Mujahideen we are required not to permit that, using any methods that Allah allows us”

So, that's only the beginning

Yeah. It's been a long time coming though, Putin has known about the insurgency possibly flaring up during the Olympics. The problem is that any bombing campaign that invariably targets civilians is just going to turn the international community even further against the North Caucasians than if they had retained Akhmed Zakayev or other moderates as their leaders. The people that stand to lose most from all this murder are the Chechens and North Caucasians themselves. The Tsarnaev brothers did more damage in a single bombing to the Chechen cause than any Russian special forces strike team.

[XXSockXX]

The Tsarnaev brothers did more damage in a single bombing to the Chechen cause than any Russian special forces strike team.

Actually that's a lesson terrorists of all kinds should (but probably never will) learn. I just read somewhere these days how anti-muslim violence has gone up in the Uk since these two low-lifes beheaded that soldier. A sure way to not gain any sympathy for your cause.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I've regularly met Russian fellows who have explained to me that the problem is always foreign nations seeking to undermine or destroy Russia, usually the USA or on occasion the UK.

What is more fun that is their answer to anything that happens in the world
Arab spring? Organized by CIA. Protests in Turkey? Organized by CIA. Protests in Ukraine? Guess what?

I don't know if that's a feeling still left over from Soviet times

It has nothing to do with Soviet times. That's the voice of the current Russian propaganda

Yeah. It's been a long time coming though, Putin has known about the insurgency possibly flaring up during the Olympics. The problem is that any bombing campaign that invariably targets civilians is just going to turn the international community even further against the North Caucasians than if they had retained Akhmed Zakayev or other moderates as their leaders. The people that stand to lose most from all this murder are the Chechens and North Caucasians themselves. The Tsarnaev brothers did more damage in a single bombing to the Chechen cause than any Russian special forces strike team.

It's a sad situation that Chechen resistance turned from a nationalist guerrilla to typical Islamic terrorists that attack random civilians... Chechen nationalism took severe blow after the death of the great person Dzhokhar Dudayev. He was a commander on an airbase near my home city so I heard some stories about him from people who met him personally.  Since his death with every year there are less Nationalism and more Islam in the North Caucasus

Why is this happening? IMO that's because Islamists get much more foreign support than nationalists. Real support; Weapons, money, volunteers not declarations.

[Owlbread]

President Aslan Maskhadov was also a great man. He was reasonable, just, intelligent and only wanted peace for his people. He would have been the man that Russia could negotiate with, could ensure a lasting peace with. Unfortunately Putin and his underlings had other ideas and he was killed in a surgical strike, just like Dudayev. His successor was a stronger Islamist, but still more reasonable than those that followed. He too was killed in a surgical strike. The Russians have killed every single semi-reasonable guy among the militants in their surgical strikes and now there's only nutjobs. Maybe that was the strategy all along.

It's interesting that among Chechens, Dudayev seems almost like a kind of Reagan or Churchill figure where the Islamists are claiming their tactics is what Dudayev would want (for he was a devout Muslim), while secular nationalists are harkening back to the old days under Dudayev's command where they sought to create a national state. Similar things happen among the political right in the UK with groups like the BNP claiming Churchill would agree with them, Conservatives saying otherwise. Dudayev certainly wouldn't want this, not if it would undermine their cause so much.

Why is this happening? IMO that's because Islamists get much more foreign support than nationalists. Real support; Weapons, money, volunteers not declarations.

Yes. It's the same thing that's happening in Syria right now, with the more secular, reformist FSA being marginalised by radicals funded with foreign support.

[MonkeyHead]

Just gos to show, as always, that an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

[Owlbread]

Just gos to show, as always, that an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

Chechens need a Gandhi right now, they don't need an Osama bin Laden.

The IRA suffered a similar fate where people just got sick of their senseless bombing attacks. Whenever you find yourselves turning on civilians like this, some "publicity" isn't worth having, especially if it means international counter terrorist groups will work together against you.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I can't get logic if attacking random people. Just can't. 

Police station\military base? Logical target. Governmental institutions? Logical target
Economic infrastructure? Logical target. High profile politicians? Very logical target. Random people in a bus\school\metro. WTF?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That's because this is terrorism (the word being used correctly, for once). The idea is that you bring the horrors of conflict directly to civilians, and try to convince the power structure to give in by making the entire population scared for their lives.

[Owlbread]

I can't get logic on attacks on random people. Just can't. 

Police station\military base? Logical target. Governmental institutions? Logical target
Economic infrastructure? Logical target. High profile politicians? Very logical target. Random people in a bus\school\metro. WTF?

I know, it's terrible but it happens practically every time. It's like the militants are always blinded by the desire to make an impact that they end up attacking people weaker and more vulnerable than them, regardless of whether they're an important target or not. They become monsters.

The source of "Chechen Terrorism" was originally Shamil Basayev, a self-styled Chechen Che Guevara, the man responsible for causing the second Chechen war when his independent Islamic extremist brigade invaded Russian territory. During the second war he started saying that Chechens needed to make Russia feel what Chechens felt every day, so that's why they started doing horrible shit like Beslan and the Moscow apartment bombings. I've seen interviews with Chechen combatants who disagreed with the attack on the school, but always say "Beslan happened every day in Chechnya, yet the international community didn't care". That was their ethos.

In some respects Basayev is actually the man who deprived Chechnya of its independence. He started the second war, he started the terrorism, he was the main force that radicalised Chechnya as an Islamic movement. He's dead now of course, Russians killed him in a surgical strike that was a very long time coming. I see him as the Chechen Bonnie Prince Charlie; charismatic, but so far up his own arse with his arrogance and delusions of grandeur that he dragged his entire movement into irreversible failure.

That's because this is terrorism (the word being used correctly, for once). The idea is that you bring the horrors of conflict directly to civilians, and try to convince the power structure to give in by making the entire population scared for their lives.

The one thing these militants should have learned from the last decade of the War on Terror is that when genuine terrorism is used, countries simply do not back down. Instead what happens is the entire International Community will shove their feet up your ass with such force that political solutions will look much, much more inviting.

[MonkeyHead]

Its simply to create fear. Civilians are soft targets compared to mil/govt defended places. It says to people "your government can't protect you from us", in an effort to force a state to cave in to thier extreme demands. Its almost as if those carrying out the acts are treating the normal people as the enemy, or more like anyone who is not for them is against them. Wrap that up with some superweak religious justification and you are probably close to thier motivation.

[MonkeyHead]

This is why most of the UK had no problem with the army being on the streets of NI, or why UmK was careful with its targets in SA. If violence is your resistance strategy, it can not be indescriminent or it will fail in its purpose.

[Owlbread]

I can understand why so many Chechens and North Caucasians take to the mountains. A lot of the militants are actually old men and boys whose families have been killed or harmed by Russian security services. The two bombers in this case were women, but I remember reading about one woman who took part in the Moscow theatre siege (the one where Russian security services killed practically everyone, including the hostages, because they wanted to kill all the militants at all costs) whose brother had been killed in the war despite not being a combatant.

These people live in terrible conditions under the rule of brutal, corrupt Putin-imposed dictators and when you hear charismatic Che Guevara fantasists talking about taking the fight to the "bastards that killed your family", that sounds pretty good. It's like people joining the Communist Party back in the 1950s/60s because that was the only party that offered real political change.

Maybe if Scotland can become independent next year we can show these people how it's done. I know we're in a unique position in that Her Majesty's Government is generally cooperating with the Scottish government (not as much as they should, but they are) and in Russia secular separatists are likely to just disappear off the face of the earth then turn up in a ditch somewhere with bullets in the backs of their heads, but maybe we can show that cooperation is best for both parties.