The Feeding Grounds of Terrorism
The Russian political elites are not ready to take full responsibility for what goes on inside the country.
Nikolai Zlobin
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Feb. 9, 2004

Nikolai Zlobin is the Director of Russian and Eurasian Programs at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, DC.

American reactions to the explosions in the Moscow metro consisted mainly of horror, empathy, and anger. By their nature, Americans take the tragedies of others to heart, and are not afraid to show their emotions. After September 11 they came to understand the life of people who live under a constant threat of a terrorist act, and that’s why they share the feelings of Muscovites as never before. For the third day in a row, news from the Russian capital remain on the front pages of major American newspapers.

President Bush, as we know, did not include Moscow in the list of cities touched by international terror in his recent State of the Union speech. This has not gone unnoticed. High-placed representatives of the Washington establishment have assured me that there was no political symbolism in this – one of the president’s speechwriters simply did not think the idea through, and White House advisors did not pick up the omission. If the President’s speech could be repeated, they told me, Moscow would definitely be there.

I am inclined to believe them. But there are other indicators. In an express poll conducted by CNN on February 7, eighty-five percent of respondents believed that the West is not paying enough attention to the terrorist threats facing Russia. That makes me wonder if Washington’s quick reaction to the Moscow explosion was guided by, among other things, a desire to rectify the situation, to show that the Russian capital is indeed one of the cities in the front line against the war on international terrorism. Americans were quick to remember the theater hijacking, which deeply shook American society, as well as the explosions on Pushkinskaya and at the Hotel “National”, and other terrorist acts in Russian over the past few years. Notably, not only did Bush immediately call Putin to offer his support and condolences, but the White House also came out with a sharply-phrased statement against the terrorists, as did the State Department, the US embassy in Russia, and a number of other important centers of power in the US. Such a unified reaction is rare in this country.

There’s no need to immediately blame the Russian special services for failing to prevent the tragedy. Their reputation is high around the world, and their techniques are studied by their American colleagues. For understandable reasons we know little of terrorist acts they have prevented, saving, in the process, many lives.

It seems to me attention should be turned elsewhere. Unfortunately, the image of Russia as a country unable to combat terrorism, like Pakistan or Indonesia, is growing stronger. There is a desire to close off from Russia, and there is growing suspicion toward Russians traveling abroad.

It would seem that President Putin, speaking about the subway explosion, himself admitted the impossibility of beating terrorism alone, without consolidated international efforts. But the Russian leadership continues to portray the conflict in Chechnya as one of the fronts in the battle against international terrorism or, alternately, as Russia’s own internal concern, refusing any attempts to internationalize its solution or military and humanitarian aid from other countries.

This cannot help but cause questions in the US. To what extent did Moscow’s actions cause the Chechen separatist movement to evolve towards bloody terrorism? Was there a chance to prevent that from happening? Is there a chance now?

Putin is absolutely correct when he talks about the impossibility of negotiating with terrorists, about the need for their physical elimination. This has always been the position of the US as well. But power should be matched with wisdom and calculation. Besides eliminating terrorists, the conditions under which they appear must also be eliminated. World experience shows that terrorism appears where the government cannot handle its basic functions, where there is injustice and the absence of the rule of law. It appears where the political system limits the possibility of mass grassroots movements to achieve their goals through legal channels, where there is discrimination, lawlessness, and human rights violations.

It has long been shown that terrorism cannot be fought effectively if there is no respect, trust, and mutual aid between society, law enforcement, and the judicial system, or where justice is selective, swayed by ephemeral political demands, where corruption and informal relations rule instead of the rule of law. Terrorism will continue to appear where the battle with it is waged under ethnic or religious banners, with the flags of false patriotism, in the absence of political and social tolerance. Both Americans and Russians have gone through that experience.

It seems to me that the Russian political elite is not ready to take full responsibility for what goes on in the country. Its bewilderment is noticeable, especially form the outside. And yet a lot of things in contemporary Russian demand serious revisions. It’s important to not repeat past mistakes, for the people who pay for them are not the politicians themselves but innocent people.