Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 3 – Andrey Illarionov
says that recent statements by Vladimir Puti suggest that the Kremlin leader
may be about to exploit the crash of the Russian plane in Sinai in much the same
way that he did the apartment bombings in 1999, to unify Russian society behind
even harsher measures against “terrorists.”
The Russian analyst points to
statements by Putin and other Russian officials in the last several days which
suggest that the Kremlin plans on identifying some group as being responsible
for the downing of the plane, mobilizing Russian public opinion against that group,
and then launching an attack on it (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=563849D7614B7).
And he asks, “Does this not remind
everyone of the play, ‘The Beginning of the Second Chechen War in August-September
1999’ in three acts?”
In the first, the situation is as
follows: “the latest war in the Caucasus/Middle East is becoming unpopular in
Russian society.”
In the second, “terrorist acts take
place in Russian cities/with a Russian jet, in which hundreds of innocent
people die.”
And in the third act, Illarionov
concludes, “Russian society is frightened and unwillingly supports the harsh
measures of the authorities in putting down the Chechen/and defeat of Islamist ‘terrorists.’”
What Illarionov does not say but
what will certainly be on the minds of many who read his post is something
truly frightening: Many have concluded that Putin not only exploited the 1999
bombings but was in some way involved in their organization. Thus, any
suggested parallel is inevitably politically explosive.
(For the most detailed discussion of
what happened in 1999, see John Dunlop’s The
Moscow Bombings of September 1999 (Ibidem, 2014).)
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