There’s been another suicide bombing in Russia, on a crowded Moscow commuter train. At least 39 are dead, over 100 injured. Vladimir Putin blames Chechen terrorists:
Putin condemned the blast, calling it terrorism.
“Only with the united efforts of the world community can we deal with this plague of this 21st century,” Putin said, according to Interfax.
The president said he would not exclude the possibility that terrorists were trying to pressure the Russian leadership ahead of March elections, and restated his position that the government would never negotiate with terrorists, Interfax reported.
In Grozny, Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov denied that Chechen rebels were behind the blast.
What Putin doesn’t mention is that the “plague of the 21st century” was the “plague of the 20th century” in Israel. People didn’t combat suicide bombings in Israel because they figured that the terrorism was “Israel’s problem”. Now the tactic has spread – Riyadh, Baghdad, Moscow – and containment is tougher because the terrorists know that their weapon of choice is effective.
My condolences to the victims of today’s cowardly attack and their families.
Not to mention Istanbul, Bali, Casablanca . . .
Ditto.
Segacs, the independence movement in Chechnya is hundreds of years old. Why don’t the Russians just get out?
A lot’s changed in those hundreds of years, Hanthala. Czarist Russia, revolutions, Communism, Stalinism, the collapse of the Soviet Union… somehow I don’t think you can compare the Chechen motives for independance today with the ones hundreds of years ago.
In any case, terrorism is inexcusible.