Telephone Terrorism Shows No Sign of Letting Up, Nesmiyan Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 19 – Today, for the fourth day in a row, telephone calls saying that bombs have been planted in key locations in Moscow and St. Petersburg have continued; and commentator Anatoly Nesmiyan says there is no sign that these calls or the emergency evacuations they have provoked are going to come to an end anytime soon. 

            He suggests there are two possibilities in this situation. Either the authorities plan to use these attacks as the occasion for imposing a far more totalitarian system on the country, or they are not in a position to do so because those behind these attacks are Russia’s Western partners whom Moscow can’t easily respond to (rosbalt.ru/posts/2019/02/19/1765057.html).

            “Undoubtedly,” Nesmiyan says, “diversions and terror in the sphere of information security are a comparatively new phenomenon,” although there are precedents,” as in the case of Iran. But if the source of these attacks on Russia’s economy and sense of security really are not domestic but foreign, the authors in these countries must be shown that there will be a response.

            What is taking place now as the attacks continue is an attempt by the Russian powers that be to decide just who is responsible.  Once that is known, the response is predictable; but as for now, the authorities do not appear to have a clear answer. As a result, there is not yet any decision about what to do; and the attacks, already unnerving many, are going to continue.

            How long that can continue is an “interesting” question.  But at present, it has not obvious resolution. “And that means the reports about bombs and evacuations will continue” until the Putin regime decides if and how it should or even can respond, the commentator suggests.