2024-03-26 10:15:50
Moscow terror attack exposes vulnerability of Putin’s regime
There was a warning from the US, but it was ignored… Rumors raised after the incident
Capabilities are exhausted only by the West and political opponents… Other security functions
It is pointed out that the worst terrorist attack in Russia, a centralized country, in 20 years revealed the instability of the ruling system. The Russian political structure, with Russian President Vladimir Putin at its peak, is preoccupied with conflict with the West and has shown its limitations in internal affairs.
In 2017, President Putin declared victory over the Islamic State (IS), a Sunni fundamentalist militant group, but failed to prevent four gunmen from indiscriminately shooting and throwing explosives at Crocus City Hall in northwest Moscow, the capital, on the 22nd (local time).
The fact that the U.S. Embassy warned the Russian authorities in advance of the risk of terrorism, but failed to prevent it, also has important implications. The fact that the United States ignored prior information provided to Russia proves that the security function of the system has collapsed.
Three days before the attack, Russian President Putin evaluated the Western warnings as propaganda aimed at scaring Russians, saying, “It all appears to be open blackmail and an attempt to scare and shake our society.”
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian state broadcaster RT, argued that “the US warning means that they participated in the preparation of the attack.”
At the same time, the fact that President Putin won the presidential election five days before the terrorist attack and made anti-Western remarks also suggests that Russia’s security function is focused solely on the West. It is said that Russia’s security and intelligence functions, preoccupied with anti-Western sentiment, have resulted in a failure to deal with other security threats.
President Putin, who had remained silent after the terrorist attack, said in a TV speech a day later, “We arrested 11 people, including 4 armed men,” and added, “They were trying to hide and move to Ukraine. “According to preliminary investigation data, there was a window on the Ukrainian side through which they could cross the border,” he claimed.
The blame was placed on Ukraine rather than on the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K), which the United States pointed out as the mastermind and who claimed to have committed the crime.
Even in the Beslan elementary school attack 20 years ago, President Putin pushed back on the theory that the West was behind the attack, saying, “The attack was planned by those who wanted to weaken Russia and aimed at the collapse of Russia.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed rumors of Ukraine intervention.
The Washington Post reported on the 24th, “Despite President Putin’s rhetoric seeking to implicate Ukraine, analysts, former U.S. security officials and Russian elites said the attack highlighted the vulnerabilities of President Putin’s wartime regime.”
Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), said, “Just as in the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigogine, head of the Wagner Group (last June), the Russian regime is showing its weakness in a crisis situation,” and added, “President Putin is acting in a difficult moment. “It always disappears,” he said. President Putin’s ‘strong leader’ appearance is always absent in crisis situations.
“Unless it’s a very high-profile public event like the Olympics or President Putin is in attendance, Russia’s vigilance against serious security is always low,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official. “We have a sophisticated system focused on these kinds of threats.” “We need to have this, but Russia is focusing on other things,” he said.
This appears to reflect the fact that in addition to being preoccupied with being anti-Western, the Russian government has exhausted its considerable security capabilities in monitoring and purging political opponents. It is said that groups classified as non-Western or political opponents have been neglected by Russian intelligence authorities because of this.
The number of deaths counted so far is 137 and the number of injured is 182, and the number of deaths from injuries may increase in the future.
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2024-03-26 10:15:50