Source: BBC Radio's Up All Night
On a day of mourning in Russia, Carnegie's Matthew Rojansky spoke live with BBC Radio about the double suicide attacks on Moscow’s underground railway system which killed 38 and left 68 injured. President Obama personally called Russian President Medvedev to offer his condolences and support in helping to bring perpetrators, perpetrators who the federal service said links to the North Caucasus.
Considering the history of terrorist attacks from the North Caucasus, Rojansky asserted that it is not unsurprising that the majority of Russians make the assumption that the bombings were linked to the North Caucasus. Most of the analysis thus far has suggested that these attacks were in retaliation for recent efforts by the federally backed forces in the North Caucasus to take out some of the militants hiding there. Rojansky explained that he expects the federal forces to react by further concentrating their counterterrorist efforts in the North Caucasus region.
These attacks should be seen as part of a series of attacks going back more than a decade, Rojansky stated. Generally speaking, Russians appreciate how difficult it is for their government to prevent such attacks, given the difficulty of penetrating militant communities. The Russian authorities have already taken significant actions against the militants believed responsible for the bombings, and Rojansky expressed doubts that the authorities have any good sources left. He added that further suicide attacks by female bombers, known as ‘black widows’ are especially difficult to prevent, as the bombers are often driven by strong personal emotions and sometimes operate almost independently.
Given that Russia has recently seen a number of protests about police accountability, corruption among security officials, and state power under Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev, Rojansky concluded with a question about whether the Russian people will speak out about the connection between police corruption and the inability of security forces to protect citizens from terrorist attacks.