Paul Goble
Staunton,
August 22 – Terrorist actions in Chechnya have changed in recent months, with
ever more the work of individuals rather than groups and perpetrators
increasingly youthful, according to Elena Milashina. But officials are
responding with the same blunt instruments they used earlier, thus opening the
way for more such violence in the future.
“Under
the influence of events in the Middle East,” the Novaya gazeta director of special projects says, “the ideology and
forms of terrorism in the entire world, including in the North Caucasus and
Chechnya have changed significantly. [They] have evolved and modernized” (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/08/21/77563-armiya-proshloy-voyny).
But “unfortunately,” those in
Chechnya responsible for countering terrorism haven’t recognized what is taking
place and therefore are not prepared to counter such actions in an effective
way. Instead, the police, who are the ones primarily responsible for responding,
are understaffed and spend most of their time trying to put on a show for their
bosses.
As a result, the special rapid
reaction units that are supposed to deal with any terrorist challenge seldom arrive
at the site of a terrorist action in a timely fashion, leading other officials
to engage in a blame game among themselves and the arrest of the relatives of
terrorists “often after the fact.”
“The new form of terrorism which
relies on individual and unpredictable attacks using means at hand,” Milashina
says, “are in fact impossible to prevent without the help of families or the
immediate entourage of a potential terrorist. But the relationship of the
people and the police in this case” requires that each sees the other as an
ally, something not now true.
“To counter present-day terrorist
threats,” the journalist continues, “requires not so much force [of the kind
the Chechen authorities routinely rely] as brains,” the use of intelligence in
order to gain the information that officials need if they are to have any
chance of blocking more terrorist actions.
According to Milashina, “’the brain
center’ for countering terrorism in Chechnya is not the interior ministry but
the republic branch of the FSB.” But all too often it simply provides support
for the police in their use of massive force, something that has the effect of
limiting the collection of necessary intelligence.
In sum, the journalist says, “the Chechen
siloviki headed by Kadyrov have reacted to what has occurred with old methods:
they fight against a ‘specific’ threat with mass detentions,” introducing counter-terrorist
regimes in whole regions and arresting “an enormous number of residents of
Chechnya, including young people.”
Instead of countering terrorism,
these actions only further anger the population and the holding cells become
incubators of radicalism rather than a source of actionable intelligence,
Milashina suggests, especially given the brutal way in which the Chechen police
and FSB treat those they have arrested. “At a minimum 27 people were killed”
after the latest terrorist acts.
But neither the police nor the FSB
have gained any “’live’ information” about how ISIS recruits in Chechnya, how
terrorist actions are planned, or any other data that could help. And “judging from these criminal affairs, neither
the FSB of Chechnya nor the republic interior ministry has any idea about the
new threat and does not understand how to struggle with it.”
“Work with detainees after the
December attack in Grozny,” Milashina says, “reminds one of a lottery,” with
some getting “a plus” and others “a minus.”
But it didn’t stop anything. Indeed, it made the situation worse. One of
the young people arrested then has now carried out a terrorist action.
Why and how could this happen?
Milashina asks rhetorically. “Unfortunately, we will never know the answer
because those who struggle with terrorism in Russia have no desire to
understand or even a desire to prevent” such things from being repeated again
and again.
No comments:
Post a Comment