Svetlana Babeva: Russia's Homeland Insecurity
[Svetlana Babeva is the U.S. bureau chief of the Russian News and Information Agency (RIA Novosti).]
Thirty-five people died, eighty-six in hospitals and ninety-four received outpatient treatment, according to emergency officials. These are the consequences of Monday’s terrorist act at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow. The airport operates hundreds of flights daily, and all members of the Star Alliance, including United Airlines, use Domodedovo as their principal hub.
President Medvedev postponed his trip to the Davos World Economic Forum. The recently appointed Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin pledged compensation from the city budget to the families of those killed and injured in Monday’s blast.
A source in law enforcement, on condition of anonymity, told RIA Novosti that security agencies had held information about a plausible attack in one of Moscow’s airports, but could not locate the suspects they were searching for.
But to comprehend the scale of this appalling crime one should look at the broader problem. This is the second terrorist attack in less than a year in the Russian capital. In March 2010, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in two metro stations at the height of rush hour, leaving thirty-nine dead.
In late October, the chief of the investigating agency, Alexander Bastrykin, reported that in the period from January to September 2010 the number of terrorist attacks in Russia was two and a half times that of the previous year. In December, the prosecutor general’s office reported that the number of terrorist attacks in the Caucasus region doubled in 2010, and the operational environment, according to Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, has generally worsened. He also acknowledged that the terrorist threat throughout Russia remains high.
These revelations beg the question: What has been the benefit of more than a decade of military and political conflict in the Northern Caucasus?..
Read entire article at National Interest
Thirty-five people died, eighty-six in hospitals and ninety-four received outpatient treatment, according to emergency officials. These are the consequences of Monday’s terrorist act at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow. The airport operates hundreds of flights daily, and all members of the Star Alliance, including United Airlines, use Domodedovo as their principal hub.
President Medvedev postponed his trip to the Davos World Economic Forum. The recently appointed Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin pledged compensation from the city budget to the families of those killed and injured in Monday’s blast.
A source in law enforcement, on condition of anonymity, told RIA Novosti that security agencies had held information about a plausible attack in one of Moscow’s airports, but could not locate the suspects they were searching for.
But to comprehend the scale of this appalling crime one should look at the broader problem. This is the second terrorist attack in less than a year in the Russian capital. In March 2010, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in two metro stations at the height of rush hour, leaving thirty-nine dead.
In late October, the chief of the investigating agency, Alexander Bastrykin, reported that in the period from January to September 2010 the number of terrorist attacks in Russia was two and a half times that of the previous year. In December, the prosecutor general’s office reported that the number of terrorist attacks in the Caucasus region doubled in 2010, and the operational environment, according to Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, has generally worsened. He also acknowledged that the terrorist threat throughout Russia remains high.
These revelations beg the question: What has been the benefit of more than a decade of military and political conflict in the Northern Caucasus?..