Russian Suicide Bombing

[emmie]

i wonder how the Russians will deal with this, apart from picking up the bodies.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/29/world/europe/russia-train-station-explosion/

[emmie]

perhaps better had i put Russia, still it's a terrible thing... more to come i wonder.

[Ken4155]

I was in the army in the 70's and did 3 tours of N Ireland, patrolling Belfast City Centre on each occasion. The City Centre, itself, had a steel fence around it and it was our job to search everyone passing through the handful of 'gates'. No matter how diligent we were, incendiary devices still got through and did their damage. I hasten to add that these were smuggled through in component parts and assembled within the 'ring of steel'. But just how do you stop a suicide bomber? How do you deter someone who is so fanatical that they are willing to blow themselves up for a cause they will never know the outcome of?

[bookbinder]

The Russian authorities will probably come down hard on 'the usual suspects', then say that the problem has been solved.

[emmie]

i agree, strap a bomb to your body, it's inconceivable. Is this another Islamic fanatic, what would be the aim if so.

[emmie]

she blew herself to bits, hard to find the usual suspects...

[LazyGun]

I think it is most likely Chechnyan separatists. Putin has been doing quite active in pre-empting possible areas of criticism during the upcoming winter olympics - freeing the Greenpeace protestors, freeing the remaining pussy riot girls, freeing the russian oligarch etc - all of which could have become a focal point for criticism of his regime during the Olympics - but 2 very high profile areas remain - The ongoing political instability in Chechyna, murderous in its intensity, and the recent legislative changes within russia concerning homosexuality.

I would not want to be a visitor to the Olympics myself, given how determined some of the Chechynans are, and the Olympics is a natural target for them, it seems to me.

[emmie]

BBC news seems to indicate Islamic connections, this is the second woman who has set off a bomb this way and other areas are being targeted, hit.

[LazyGun]

Chechynan separatists are muslims. The population is largely Sunni I think. The Chechens have fought 2 wars of independence from Russia and lost both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Origin_of_Chechnya.27s_population

So guerilla tactics, suicide bombers, terrorist outrages have now become part of that process.

[emmie]

i wasn't quite sure, i remember watching a documentary on the young leader of Chechnya, he was quite a brute, or that is how he came across.

[emmie]

though i see what you mean about the separatists, the worlds gone mad

[sandyRoe]

It looks as though there's now much more the Russians could do to Chetchen cities in revenge for this attack.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chechen+war+photos&;sa=X&tbm=isch&source=iu&imgil=6srmWzkRnQ2pjM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcRMdbSvAn1uwywS2XXNeZA6BI5nYkHXYWtRZbVpqkl_65cJ6e9K%253B400%253B267%253BGkpVm5KVanS2MM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fadamite.wordpress.com%25252F2007%25252F07%25252F28%25252Fchechen-war-photos%25252F&;ei=dz_AUq3BN8iShgfttID4CA&ved=0CEEQ9QEwCA&biw=1024&;bih=655#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=6srmWzkRnQ2pjM%3A%3BGkpVm5KVanS2MM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fadamite.files.wordpress.com%252F2007%252F07%252Fgrozny281.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fadamite.wordpress.com%252F2007%252F07%252F28%252Fchechen-war-photos%252F%3B400%3B267

[emmie]

they have never been known for their lenience.

[ichkeria]

Probably not a lot to do with Chechnya specifically, or the wars of independence there, but more likely the general Islamist insurgency in the Caucasus. Although those fighting for the Emirate of the Caucasus declared a moratorium on suicide bombs ages ago. Poltical issues to do with the Olympics are many and complicated, and are exacerbated by a hopelessly incompetent and corrupt security force

[ichkeria]

You have to hand it to the Russians - they always seem to identify these "suicide bombers" remarkably quickly. Almost as quickly as they get their election results out :-)

[emmie]

perhaps they are linking it to the other one, who knows.

[sandyRoe]

Do the Russians think they have strategic interests there? They let other places, like Uzbekistan and Tjajikistan, go without bloody wars.

[ichkeria]

They haven't let Uzbekistan etc go, Sandy. (Those countries gained independence originally as they had Soviet Republic status, unlike the Caucasus states - but it's debatable how independent they really are) But in any case the Caucasus is strategically much more important. Otherwise they would never bother

[emmie]

doesn't look good for the coming sporting events.

[youngmafbog]

The Russians do not have their hands tied by right-on foreign courts in the form of the ECHR. They will be able to go further, much further.

Putin has already muted going after families of the suicide bombers.

Someone has to take a stance against these people, Europe is too soft so it wont come from here.

[emmie]

Putin is an egomaniac, short on temper and long on memory,
if Chechnya has grievances why don't they put them, or is it simply that
Putin won't listen. They have said suicide bomber, pointing to the Islamic fundamentalists, how do you fight against a lone person, they may be more, and that will go on until someone says enough, what is it you want...