Putin said: "Some want to tear away a juicy slice from us, and others are helping them do it, thinking that Russia as a major nuclear power still poses a threat to someone. And so they want to remove this threat."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the other day on The Voice of Russia: "Some people do not want to see a strong Russia, but I will disappoint them: we will strengthen our country, develop partner relations with all countries, and conduct dialogue without confrontation and without resorting to hysterics."
Mr Lavrov noted that he did not rule out that there was a connection between the Beslan hostage siege and the deterioration of the situation in South Ossetia, though "there are no facts" to prove it. However, the minister thinks "the very consequences of the crisis created by the Georgian leadership in South Ossetia, which had been one of the calmest republics in the region," prompt certain conclusions. "It fits in with the interests of those who would like to destabilise the North Caucasus," Mr Lavrov stressed.
The other day, the president's thesis about the external threat was taken up by the top military leaders, first by Chief of the General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky, and then by Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov. Their statements mean, in essence, that since the terrorists have declared war on Russia, the country has a right not only to protect itself but also to deliver preemptive strikes at the terrorist bases - in any part of the world.
Experts surveyed by RIA agree that Russia is indeed facing a terrorist international. According to General Romanenko, deputy director of the Institute of the CIS, "the terrorism associated with Chechnya has a concrete financial assistance, above all from Saudi Arabia, which almost openly finances terrorists, including Chechen ones. Let's call a spade a spade - the situation in Saudi Arabia is fully controlled by the US. And so, everything fits in with the interests of US presence in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia." This is the opinion of an independent expert.
But Sergei Kazennov, deputy head of the section of geopolitics at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (Russian Academy of Sciences), categorically disagrees. In his opinion, "there are very many non-systemic and even anti-systemic transnational forces now alongside the traditional entities of international relations - states." He stressed, "these forces have created serious problems also for the Saudi regime," which is often accused of assisting terrorism. Hence, "there is no point in speaking about which state would profit from the current situation. The trouble is that the terrorist chain is long and winding, and it is very difficult to understand who is using whom. But terrorists certainly get major financial injections, which we must fight," said Kazennov.
"When we speak about a terrorist international, we certainly mean a system," said Alexander Sharavin, full member of the Academy of Military Sciences and director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis. But "this does not mean that all terrorist groups of this terrorist international are controlled from one centre, from one bunker."
Mr Sharavin believes that these groups "are connected with each other by the goals and tasks and modus operandi. Their fighters frequently move from one group to another, are often trained together and help each other, yet they are independent from one another. Even when they act on the basis of extremist religious ideology, they are not controlled from one centre," the expert said.
"On the other hand, we know that money for a very large group of these organisations comes from the Arabian Peninsula, as well as from other states that areregarded as fundamentally friendly to Russia," Sharavin stressed.
However, experts do not agree on the expediency of delivering preemptive strikes. Mr Kazennov thinks Russia should not emulate the US, which embarked on this road after the 9/11 tragedy and has made many mistakes.
But Sharavin argues, "this attitude is completely justified for Russia in its current situation." He stressed, "not only the US but also other states can take such actions when they know for sure that terrorist bases are located in a certain part of the world."
In this situation, the desire of the Russian people and leaders to do something, to create an effective anti-terror system is highly commendable. But we should think carefully, with reliance on world experience, about what we should do, and how.
Only the whole of the civilised world together can defeat terrorism. But we would do well to begin by deciding on the international level who is a "terrorist" and who is "a freedom fighter," "a rebel," and the like - and strictly comply with this decision afterwards, abandoning once and for all the policy of double standards, when terrorists are divided into "bad" and "good".
