Terrorism in Russia
Encyclopedia
Terrorism in Russia has a long history starting from the times of the Russian Empire
. Terrorism
, in the modern sense, means violence
against civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating fear. Terrorism tactics, such as hostage-taking, were widely used by the Soviet secret agencies
, most notably during the Red Terror
and Great Terror
campaigns, against the population of their own country, according to Karl Kautsky
and other historians of Bolshevism
.
Starting from the end of the 20th century, significant terrorist activity has taken place in Moscow
, most notably apartment bombings
and the Moscow theater hostage crisis
. Many more acts of terrorism have been committed in Chechnya
, Dagestan
, and other parts of the country. Some of them became a matter of significant controversy, since journalists and scholars claimed them to be directed by the Russian secret services, often through their Chechen agent provocateur
s.
, Dylan Richards, and other authors trace the origins of Russian terrorism
to the "Reign of Terror
" of the French Revolution
. Others emphasize the role of Russian revolutionary movements of the 19th century, and especially Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") and the Nihilist movement
, which included several thousand followers. "People's Will" organized one of the first political terrorism campaign in history. In March 1881, it assassinated the Emperor of Russia Alexander II
, who twenty years earlier had emancipated the Russian serfs.
Important ideologists of these groups were Mikhail Bakunin
and Sergey Nechayev
, who was described in Fyodor Dostoevsky
's novel The Possessed. Nechaev argued that the purpose of revolutionary terror
is not to gain a support of masses, but to the contrary, inflict misery and fear on the common population. According to Nechayev, a revolutionary must terrorize civilians to incite rebellions. He wrote:
According to historian and writer Edvard Radzinsky
, Nechayev's ideas and tactics were widely used by Joseph Stalin
and other Russian revolutionaries.
Terrorism, both political and agrarian, was central to the strategy of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
. The "SR Combat Organization", responsible for assassinating government officials, was led by Grigory Gershuni
and operated separately from the party so as not to jeopardize its political actions. SRCO agents assassinated two Ministers of the Interior, Dmitry Sipyagin and V. K. von Plehve
, Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich
, the Governor of Ufa
N. M. Bogdanovich, and many other high ranking officials.
in Soviet Russia served to frighten the civilian population and exterminate certain social groups considered as "ruling classes" or enemies of the people. Karl Kautsky
said about Red Terror: "Among the phenomena for which Bolshevism has been responsible, Terrorism
, which begins with the abolition of every form of freedom of the Press, and ends in a system of wholesale execution, is certainly the most striking and the most repellent of all.. Kautsky recognized that Red Terror
represented a variety of terrorism
because it was indiscriminate, intended to frighten the civilian population, and included taking and executing hostages "http://marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1919/terrcomm/ch08b.htm#s6. Martin Latsis, chief of the Ukrainian Cheka
emphasized that Red terror was an extrajudicial punishment
:
One of most common terrorist practices was hostage-taking. A typical report from a Cheka department stated: "Yaroslavl
Province, 23 June 1919. The uprising of deserters in the Petropavlovskaya volost has been put down. The families of the deserters have been taken as hostages. When we started to shoot one person from each family, the Greens began to come out of the woods and surrender. Thirty-four deserters were shot as an example".
refers collectively to several related campaigns of political repression
and persecution
in the Soviet Union
orchestrated by Joseph Stalin
during the 1930s, which removed all of his remaining opposition from power. It involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and the persecution of unaffiliated persons, both occurring within a period characterized by omnipresent police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", imprisonment, and killings. In the Western World
, this was referred to as "the Great Terror".
with most terrorist activity taking place in Chechnya
and Dagestan
.
The Russian government has banned seventeen terrorist organizations; the Highest Military Majlisul Shura of the United Forces of the Mujahedeen of the Caucasus, the Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Daghestan, Al Qaeda, Asbat an-Ansar, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Al-Jamaa al-Islami, Jamaat-e-Islami
, Muslim Brotherhood
, Hizb ut-Tahrir
, Lashkar-e-Toiba
, Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
, Society of Social Reforms (Jamiat al-Islah al-Ijtimai), Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (Jamiat Ihya at-Turaz al-Islami), al-Haramain Foundation
, Junj ash-Sham (Army of the Great Syria), and the Islamic Jihad - jamaat of the mujahedeen.
Many Muslim
s and human rights
activists have criticized the government
's counter-terrorism
operations, saying they unfairly target Muslims.
were a series of bombings in Russia
that killed nearly 300 people and, together with the Dagestan War
, led the country into the Second Chechen War
. The five bombings took place in Moscow
and two other Russian towns during ten days of September 1999. None of the Chechen field commanders accepted the responsibility for the bombing. Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov
denied involvement of his government.
The bombings had stopped after a controversial episode when a similar bomb was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan
on September 23. Later in the evening, Vladimir Putin
praised the vigilance of the Ryzanians and ordered the air bombing of Grozny
, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War
. A few hours later, three FSB
agents who planted the bomb were caught by the local police. This incident was declared to be a "training exercise" by FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.
Former FSB
officer Alexander Litvinenko
, Johns Hopkins University
and Hoover Institute scholar David Satter
, Russian lawmaker Sergei Yushenkov
, historian Felshtinsky, and political scientist Pribylovsky asserted that the bombings were in fact a "false flag
" attack perpetrated by the FSB (successor to the KGB
) in order to legitimize the resumption of military activities in Chechnya and bring Vladimir Putin and the FSB to power. Researchers such as Gordon Bennett
, Robert Bruce Ware
, Vlad Sobell, Peter Reddaway and Richard Sakwa
have criticized the conspiracy theories, pointing out that the theories' proponents have provided little evidence to support them, and also that the theory ignores the history of Chechen terrorism and threats made by the militants before the bombings.
An official investigation of the bombings was completed only three years later, in 2002. It was conducted by the Russian FSB
agency. Seven suspects were killed, six have been convicted on terrorism-related charges, and one remains a fugitive. According to the investigation, all bombings were organized and led by Achemez Gochiyaev
- who as of 2007 remained at large.
The Russian Duma
rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident. An independent public commission to investigate the bombings chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev
was rendered ineffective because of government refusal to respond to its inquiries. Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov
and Yuri Shchekochikhin
, both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations in April 2003 and July 2003 respectively. The Commission's lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin
has been arrested in October 2003 to become one of the better-known political prisoners in Russia.
alleged that Moscow theater hostage crisis
was directed by a Chechen
FSB agent. Yulia Latynina
and other journalists also accused the FSB of staging many smaller terrorism
acts, such as market place bombing in the city of Astrakhan
, bus stops bombings in the city of Voronezh
, and the blowing up the Moscow
-Grozny
train, whereas innocent people were convicted or killed. Journalist Boris Stomakhin
claimed that a bombing in Moscow metro in 2004 was probably organized by FSB agents rather than by the unknown man who called the Kavkaz Center
and claimed his responsibility. Stomakin was arrested and imprisoned to five years of prison for inciting hatred and defamatory statements aimed at groups and persons of particular religious and ethnic background and for promoting violent change of constitutional regime and violation of territorial integrity of Russian Federation (articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).
Many journalists and workers of international NGOs were reported to be kidnapped by FSB-affiliated forces in Chechnya
who pretended to be Chechen terrorists: Andrei Babitsky
from Radio Free Europe
, Arjan Erkel
and Kenneth Glack from Doctors Without Borders, and others.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, in the modern sense, means violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
against civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating fear. Terrorism tactics, such as hostage-taking, were widely used by the Soviet secret agencies
Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies
There was a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the Russian Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka"...
, most notably during the Red Terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
and Great Terror
Great Terror
Great Terror may refer to:* Reign of Terror , a period of extreme violence during the French Revolution, last weeks of which are sometimes referred to as the Red Terror or Great Terror...
campaigns, against the population of their own country, according to Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
and other historians of Bolshevism
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
.
Starting from the end of the 20th century, significant terrorist activity has taken place in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, most notably apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
and the Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the...
. Many more acts of terrorism have been committed in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
, and other parts of the country. Some of them became a matter of significant controversy, since journalists and scholars claimed them to be directed by the Russian secret services, often through their Chechen agent provocateur
Agent provocateur
Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...
s.
19th century
German Social Democrat Karl KautskyKarl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
, Dylan Richards, and other authors trace the origins of Russian terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
to the "Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
" of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Others emphasize the role of Russian revolutionary movements of the 19th century, and especially Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") and the Nihilist movement
Nihilist movement
The Nihilist movement was a Russian movement in the 1860s which rejected all authorities. It is derived from the Latin word "nihil", which means "nothing"...
, which included several thousand followers. "People's Will" organized one of the first political terrorism campaign in history. In March 1881, it assassinated the Emperor of Russia Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
, who twenty years earlier had emancipated the Russian serfs.
Important ideologists of these groups were Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
and Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev was a Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence.-Early life in Russia:...
, who was described in Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
's novel The Possessed. Nechaev argued that the purpose of revolutionary terror
Revolutionary terror
Revolutionary terror ) refers to the institutionalized application of force to counterrevolutionaries, particularly during the French Revolution from the years 1793 to 1794...
is not to gain a support of masses, but to the contrary, inflict misery and fear on the common population. According to Nechayev, a revolutionary must terrorize civilians to incite rebellions. He wrote:
- "A revolutionary "must infiltrate all social formations including the police. He must exploit rich and influential people, subordinating them to himself. He must aggravate the miseries of the common people, so as to exhaust their patience and incite them to rebel. And, finally, he must ally himself with the savage word of the violent criminal, the only true revolutionary in Russia".
- "The Revolutionist is a doomed man. He has no private interests, no affairs, sentiments, ties, property nor even a name of his own. His entire being is devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion - the revolution. Heart and soul, not merely by word but by deed, he has severed every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world; with the laws, good manners, conventions, and morality of that world. He is its merciless enemy and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose - to destroy it."
According to historian and writer Edvard Radzinsky
Edvard Radzinsky
Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky is a Russian playwright, writer, TV personality, and film screenwriter. He is also known as an author of several books on history which were characterized as "folk history" by journalists and academic historians.-Biography:Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky was born...
, Nechayev's ideas and tactics were widely used by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and other Russian revolutionaries.
Terrorism, both political and agrarian, was central to the strategy of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
. The "SR Combat Organization", responsible for assassinating government officials, was led by Grigory Gershuni
Grigory Gershuni
Grigory Andreyevich Gershuni was a Russian revolutionary and one of the founders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.-Early life:Born in Kovno, Russia 1870 to Jewish peasants....
and operated separately from the party so as not to jeopardize its political actions. SRCO agents assassinated two Ministers of the Interior, Dmitry Sipyagin and V. K. von Plehve
Vyacheslav von Plehve
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve , also Pléhve, or Pleve was the director of Imperial Russia's police and later Minister of the Interior.- Biography :...
, Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia...
, the Governor of Ufa
Ufa
-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...
N. M. Bogdanovich, and many other high ranking officials.
Red terror
The policy of Red terrorRed Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
in Soviet Russia served to frighten the civilian population and exterminate certain social groups considered as "ruling classes" or enemies of the people. Karl Kautsky
Karl Kautsky
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
said about Red Terror: "Among the phenomena for which Bolshevism has been responsible, Terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, which begins with the abolition of every form of freedom of the Press, and ends in a system of wholesale execution, is certainly the most striking and the most repellent of all.. Kautsky recognized that Red Terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
represented a variety of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
because it was indiscriminate, intended to frighten the civilian population, and included taking and executing hostages "http://marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1919/terrcomm/ch08b.htm#s6. Martin Latsis, chief of the Ukrainian Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
emphasized that Red terror was an extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment is punishment by the state or some other official authority without the permission of a court or legal authority. The existence of extrajudicial punishment is considered proof that some governments will break their own legal code if deemed necessary.-Nature:Extrajudicial...
:
- "Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which classSocial classSocial classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
he belongs, what is his background, his educationEducationEducation in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, his professionProfessionA profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror."
One of most common terrorist practices was hostage-taking. A typical report from a Cheka department stated: "Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
Province, 23 June 1919. The uprising of deserters in the Petropavlovskaya volost has been put down. The families of the deserters have been taken as hostages. When we started to shoot one person from each family, the Greens began to come out of the woods and surrender. Thirty-four deserters were shot as an example".
Great Purge
The Great PurgeGreat Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
refers collectively to several related campaigns of political repression
Political repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
and persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
orchestrated by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
during the 1930s, which removed all of his remaining opposition from power. It involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Purges with a "small-p" purge was one of the key rituals during which a periodic review of party members was conducted to get rid of the "undesirables"....
and the persecution of unaffiliated persons, both occurring within a period characterized by omnipresent police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", imprisonment, and killings. In the Western World
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, this was referred to as "the Great Terror".
Threat of Islamic terrorism
Islamic terrorism is considered a major threat to the security of the nationRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
with most terrorist activity taking place in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
and Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
.
The Russian government has banned seventeen terrorist organizations; the Highest Military Majlisul Shura of the United Forces of the Mujahedeen of the Caucasus, the Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Daghestan, Al Qaeda, Asbat an-Ansar, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Al-Jamaa al-Islami, Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
, Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
, Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Sunni. pan-Islamic political organisation but keeps it open for all including shias,some of its beliefs are against sunni school of thought, whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph...
, Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
, Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...
, Society of Social Reforms (Jamiat al-Islah al-Ijtimai), Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (Jamiat Ihya at-Turaz al-Islami), al-Haramain Foundation
Al-Haramain Foundation
Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was a charity foundation, based in Saudi Arabia, alleged by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in a September 2004 press release to have "direct links" with Osama bin Laden...
, Junj ash-Sham (Army of the Great Syria), and the Islamic Jihad - jamaat of the mujahedeen.
Many Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activists have criticized the government
Government of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...
's counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
operations, saying they unfairly target Muslims.
1999 Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombingsRussian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
were a series of bombings in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
that killed nearly 300 people and, together with the Dagestan War
Dagestan War
The invasion of Dagestan, also known as the War in Dagestan and Dagestan War, began on August 7, 1999, when the Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade , an Islamist militia led by warlords Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab, invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan in support of...
, led the country into the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
. The five bombings took place in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and two other Russian towns during ten days of September 1999. None of the Chechen field commanders accepted the responsibility for the bombing. Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a leader of the Chechen separatist movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the...
denied involvement of his government.
The bombings had stopped after a controversial episode when a similar bomb was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan
Ryazan
Ryazan is a city and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Oka River southeast of Moscow. Population: The strategic bomber base Dyagilevo is just west of the city, and the air base of Alexandrovo is to the southeast as is the Ryazan Turlatovo Airport...
on September 23. Later in the evening, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
praised the vigilance of the Ryzanians and ordered the air bombing of Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
. A few hours later, three FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
agents who planted the bomb were caught by the local police. This incident was declared to be a "training exercise" by FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.
Former FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
officer Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
, Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
and Hoover Institute scholar David Satter
David Satter
David Satter is a former Moscow correspondent and expert on Russia and the Soviet Union who wrote books about the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of post-Soviet Russia.-Life and career:...
, Russian lawmaker Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician well known for his uncompromising struggle for democracy, rapid free market economic reforms, and higher human rights standards in Russia...
, historian Felshtinsky, and political scientist Pribylovsky asserted that the bombings were in fact a "false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
" attack perpetrated by the FSB (successor to the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
) in order to legitimize the resumption of military activities in Chechnya and bring Vladimir Putin and the FSB to power. Researchers such as Gordon Bennett
Gordon Bennett
-People:*Gordon Bennett , Australian artist*Gordon Bennett , US Roman Catholic priest*Gordon Bennett , UK football coach*Gordon Bennett , Australian soldier...
, Robert Bruce Ware
Robert Bruce Ware
Robert Bruce Ware is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He is the author of Hegel: The Logic of Self-consciousness and the Legacy of Subjective Freedom...
, Vlad Sobell, Peter Reddaway and Richard Sakwa
Richard Sakwa
Richard Sakwa is an expert in the field of Russian and Eastern European communist and post-communist politics. Sakwa is Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent.-Career:...
have criticized the conspiracy theories, pointing out that the theories' proponents have provided little evidence to support them, and also that the theory ignores the history of Chechen terrorism and threats made by the militants before the bombings.
An official investigation of the bombings was completed only three years later, in 2002. It was conducted by the Russian FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
agency. Seven suspects were killed, six have been convicted on terrorism-related charges, and one remains a fugitive. According to the investigation, all bombings were organized and led by Achemez Gochiyaev
Achemez Gochiyaev
Achemez Gochiyayev is a Russian citizen who was accused of organizing Russian apartment bombings, a series of terrorist acts in 1999 that killed nearly 300 people and led the country into the Second Chechen War...
- who as of 2007 remained at large.
The Russian Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident. An independent public commission to investigate the bombings chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev
Sergei Kovalev
Sergei Kovalev is a Russian human rights activist and politician and a former Soviet dissident and political prisoner.- Early career and arrest :...
was rendered ineffective because of government refusal to respond to its inquiries. Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov
Sergei Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician well known for his uncompromising struggle for democracy, rapid free market economic reforms, and higher human rights standards in Russia...
and Yuri Shchekochikhin
Yuri Shchekochikhin
Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin was a Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker of Russian parliament. Shchekochikhin made his name writing about and campaigning against the influence of organized crime and corruption...
, both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations in April 2003 and July 2003 respectively. The Commission's lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, is a Moscow attorney and former FSB colonel who was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that followed Dagestan war and were one of the triggers for the Second Chechen...
has been arrested in October 2003 to become one of the better-known political prisoners in Russia.
Other notable terrorism acts
Former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko and investigator Mikhail TrepashkinMikhail Trepashkin
Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, is a Moscow attorney and former FSB colonel who was invited by MP Sergei Kovalev to assist in an independent inquiry of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that followed Dagestan war and were one of the triggers for the Second Chechen...
alleged that Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the...
was directed by a Chechen
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
FSB agent. Yulia Latynina
Yulia Latynina
Yulia Leonidovna Latynina is a Russian journalist, writer and radio host. She works at the radio station Echo of Moscow. She also writes for Novaya Gazeta and The Moscow Times.-Writer, journalist and radio host:...
and other journalists also accused the FSB of staging many smaller terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
acts, such as market place bombing in the city of Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
, bus stops bombings in the city of Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...
, and the blowing up the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
-Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
train, whereas innocent people were convicted or killed. Journalist Boris Stomakhin
Boris Stomakhin
Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin is a Russian radical political activist, and editor of "Radical politics" periodical. He was convicted to five years in prison on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and making public appeals for extremist activity...
claimed that a bombing in Moscow metro in 2004 was probably organized by FSB agents rather than by the unknown man who called the Kavkaz Center
Kavkaz Center
The Kavkaz Center is a privately run website by pro-Chechen which aims to be "a Chechen internet agency which is independent, international and Islamic" that "does not represent the viewpoint of any state structures"...
and claimed his responsibility. Stomakin was arrested and imprisoned to five years of prison for inciting hatred and defamatory statements aimed at groups and persons of particular religious and ethnic background and for promoting violent change of constitutional regime and violation of territorial integrity of Russian Federation (articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).
Many journalists and workers of international NGOs were reported to be kidnapped by FSB-affiliated forces in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
who pretended to be Chechen terrorists: Andrei Babitsky
Andrei Babitsky
Andrei Babitsky is a Russian journalist and war reporter, who has worked for Radio Liberty since 1989, covering the 1991 August Coup, Civil War in Tajikistan and, most notably, both Chechen Wars from behind Chechen lines...
from Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
, Arjan Erkel
Arjan Erkel
Peter-Arjan Erkel is a Dutch medical aid worker and was head of the relief mission for Médecins Sans Frontières in Dagestan, a constituent republic of Russia....
and Kenneth Glack from Doctors Without Borders, and others.
See also
- SR Combat Organization
- Terrorism in Central AsiaTerrorism in Central AsiaTerrorism in Central Asia is largely a cross-border phenomenon. The source of most terrorists and terrorist organizations that operate in Central Asia is Afghanistan due to the former presence of the Taliban, and the Ferghana Valley due to the Tajik Civil War.1...
- Terrorism and The Soviet Union
- Kizlyar raid