The ISIS-K Terrorist Attack in Russia

By David Starr

 

There are religious fanatics of varying stripes, such as those in the Christian and Islamic faiths. Both of these types of fanatics are dangerous and have proved it. Only that Christian fanatics are more dangerous since they are closer to a vast array of weapons, for example, in the United States.

 

But Islamic fanatics have done their share of damage. The recent attack in late March next to Moscow could prove they can be just as dangerous. The terrorist group, the Islamic State Khorasan Provence (ISIS-K) is said to have admitted to conducting the attacks in Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk, outside of Moscow. According to CNN, “Since November, the US has received a stream of intelligence that ISIS-K was determined to mount an attack in Russia, sources told CNN, and passed those warnings on to Moscow.” 

 

Joshua Keating, a senior correspondent at the Vox publication, writes: “In fact, the horrific attack has already become one more battle in the ongoing information war between Russia, Ukraine, and Ukraine’s Western allies, including the U.S.” Keating added that the “U.S. embassy in Moscow had issued a warning on March 7 advising U.S. citizens to avoid large gatherings due to reports that ‘extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.”’

 

It is plausible that ISIS-K was indeed the perpetrators of the attack. Islamic fanatics have accumulated enough resentment to do it, considering the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. (Members of the Politburo debated whether to invade based on cross-border incursions into Soviet territory.) But Keating points out that “[t]he simple explanation that ISIS was responsible would be an inconvenient one for President Vladimir Putin. It would mean that he had ignored the U.S. warning of an imminent attack, which at the time he dismissed as ‘blackmail’ intended to destabilize Russian society. (In fairness, he would definitely not be the only world leader to recently ignore such a warning.)”

 

Putin implied in a video statement that Ukraine was to blame for the attack, saying that the suspects were caught in the western Bryansk region, which is next to Ukraine. An opening was provided for the suspects to cross the border into Ukraine. But as of yet, the Russian government hasn’t provided evidence of this assertion. 

 

The U.S. warning about the attack has been seen by Russian officials as evidence that somehow the USA was, at the least, partly responsible for the attack. On the show Dangerous Ideas, Lee Camp provides scenarios showing whether or not the USA was involved, although he didn’t make a final conclusion, but did point to the USA as a possible culprit.

 

There was a report on the PBS NewsHour in which the following was said, this coming from a transcript: 

 

Host William Brangham: Russian officials raised the death toll to 139 in the Friday night [March 22] terror attack outside Moscow. The Kremlin talked of vengeance, as investigators worked the scene. Stephanie Sy reports.

 

Reporter Stephanie Sy: Crocus City Hall is a charged shell of debris and devastation. Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said radical Islamists were behind the massacre, but he also continued to implicate Ukraine, without evidence.

 

Vladimir Putin, Russian President (through interpreter): We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries. We are interested in who ordered it.

 

Reporter Stephanie Sy: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the suggestion. Four main suspects appeared in a Russian court and appeared to have been beaten. They’re all of Tajik descent.

 

Paul Kolbe, Senior Fellow, Harvard University:

 

U.S. had been giving warnings a few weeks ago that this attack could take place.

 

Reporter Stephanie Sy: Paul Kolbe is a former operations officer for the CIA with a focus on Eastern Europe and counterterrorism. ISIS has attacked Russia a number of times over the years and has recently begun recruiting heavily from Central Asia, including Tajikistan.

 

Paul Kolbe: Tajik workers are in Moscow, so they provide a – both a willing recruitment pool for ISIS-K, because they have access to Russia, because they can be radicalized, and because they can be bought relatively cheaply.

 

Reporter Stephanie Sy: The deadly attack has shaken Russia days after President Putin, fresh from securing a fifth term, promised stability. For the PBS NewsHour, I’m Stephanie Sy.

 

One has the right to feel skeptical about what a CIA agent, in this case former, has to say, considering the CIA has been one of the world’s most dangerous agencies committing rights violations for decades. That’s not to say that Kolbe’s opinions are totally false. But one could be skeptical about the USA’s motives. The Russian population, as well as the Russian government, is understandably wary of the ulterior motives of the U.S./NATO alliance. After all, it has weapons aimed at Russia near its borders.

 

What about the status of the suspects who were captured and put in jail? NPR gives details:

 

“Four suspects – all reportedly from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic – were charged with committing acts of terror in a closed Moscow court hearing [March 24]. A court statement said the men – identified as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32; Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30; Shamsidin Fariduni, 25; and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19 – all plead guilty to participating in the attack and shooting innocent civilians.”

 

Yet, according to NPR, “…in a brief appearance before the media, the suspects all showed outward signs of torture and duress.” NPR continues with the ugly details but is this really true? Could be. After all,  any country’s police and security would react in a similar fashion if their country was attacked by outside groups, like terrorist organizations. The USA is perhaps the most major example with its responses to the 9/11 attacks. Most of the population and government were enraged and out for revenge. This cumulated in several actions, including the 2003 Iraq War which was illegal and based on lies.

 

NPR has drawn the conclusion that the U.S. Embassy did share “reports – both through private government channels to Russia and to the public on its website –that it had intelligence suggesting an attack on a public space in Moscow was imminent.” And Putin went ahead and “dismissed the American claims as fearmongering,” provocative and resemble “outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”

 

To reiterate, Putin later acknowledged the attacks after the fact, blaming religious fanatics (which was true), but thought there was a shadowy presence behind ISIS-K. Russian officials focused on a possible connection to Ukraine, although this seems questionable. But the USA’s war against Iraq wound up spawning ISIS as rival religious factions, mainly the Shiites and Sunnis, were practically at each other’s throats. Out of the carnage due to the war, ISIS came into being and went on a terror spree.

 

It can be said with accuracy that religious fanaticism is a major threat in the world. Whether it’s the Christian version or the Islamic one.