Terrorism Will Always Have Its Future

It is not about axis of evil, it is about money

In this article I would like to argue with President Vladimir Putin, who precisely outlined the perspectives of those, who organize and conduct acts of terrorism. “Terrorism has no future,” said the president. This statement is a matter of wishful thinking. This is not likely to be so, just a wish for that is far from being enough.

Of course, Vladimir Putin has strained every nerve of the military structures.  The latter have something to boast of too. However, the soil, which nourishes young generations of suicidal terrorists is fertilized with money very well. The elimination of terrorism does not seem to be possible. Here is why.

A curious manifestation took place in the city of Ivanovo, which is in the center of Russia. The demonstration took place on November 11th, after the release of the hostages in Moscow music theatre. A group of students and journalists gathered on the central square of the city and asked to rename Guerrillas Street. Yes, there is a street in a Russian town, entitled in the name of those people, who have already terrorized the whole world.

One of the central streets of the city of Ivanovo was named Guerrillas Street  in 1927. The street was named so in honor of bolsheviks’ battle squads. The squads conducted military exercises in forests in 1905-1907. It was something like training camps.  Is there any difference between a training camp of those days and terrorist camps of nowadays? The weapons will definitely be the difference, as well as the tactics, but it is only a matter of technological progress.

Those bombers of the past had to do really hard work: there were no sniper guns, no grenade launchers. They had to approach an object of their attack very close. They could only throw one grenade or make one gunshot – there was no time for more. Nowadays terrorists can perform their activities worldwide. Distance does not really matter. The terrorism has definitely increased in its scale, but its sense has actually remained the same.

Of course, there would be the people, who would say that it is not really ethical to equalize revolutionaries and terrorists of the present time. I would ignore them, why not? An act of terrorism is an act of terrorism. Old bombers were more delicate in their activities. If there were elderly people, women, or children near an object of their attack, they would often cancel the bombing. Now the situation is different, they do not care about their victims’ age or sex. The rest is basically the same. Terrorists have a dogma in their head  - the idea of correct and fair world order, which eventually brings up the idea of dictatorship.

A guerrilla, a terrorist, a suicidal terrorist is a profession. In other words, it is a job, and someone pays for this job. Only a naive person would think that training centers in the beginning of the 20th century existed at the expense of little fees or even for free. Those little fees would not feed big men, they would not give them any means for living.

Now it is known that industrialists used to sponsor Russian radical parties. They sponsored extreme organizations because they volunteered so. Some of them would say things like “guerrillas do not use us, we use them, because they annoy the government and we deal with the economic revival of Russia.” While the government was pursuing terrorists, industrialists were filling their pockets up with cash.

It is also known that every Caucasian problem starts on account of large money. Armed Chechen terrorists do not look like rebels that stood up to defend the independence of their homeland. They do not have axes or sticks to fight with their enemy (Russia). They have up-to-date weapons, anti-aircraft emplacements, land mines, grenade launchers. Everything was made in Russia, by the way. Only God knows, how much money that costs. It is an open secret that Chechen terrorists buy that weapon in Russia. However, no one knows, where they take the money for it.

It would not be correct to blame Osama bin Laden for everything. I am almost 100% sure that Chechen terrorists find sponsors in Russia. There obviously was someone, who provided food, weapons, bombs, clothes for those 50 Chechen terrorists, who recently caused a hostage crisis in Moscow. It does not matter that they were virtually suicide terrorists from the very beginning of the hostage-taking act of terrorism. It was obvious that they would not have succeeded anything. Japan used to have terrorists like that too.  However, we have to realize it now  that terrorism has already become an economic branch. Moreover, this branch brings very good profit.

The Moscow events take a different shape from this point of view. It is rumored that the whole hostage crisis was organized by Russian oligarchs, that the crisis was meant against Putin, first and foremost. This version has a right to exist: Putin interfered in their activity too much. Very wealthy men started feeling very uncomfortable. It goes without saying that assassinating the president would result in too many negative consequences. Therefore, they switched the president’s attention to terrorists. The presidents deals with hostages, oligarchs do their businesses.

Rather logic, is it not? Therefore, it is not about the presidents or their wishes. George Bush's “axis of evil” does not pose any threat, really. Terrorism will have its future as long as money is interested in it. There will always be the crazy people, who would wish to die for their fake glorious future.

Yevgeny Izyurov

Based on the materials from the newspaper Vladivostok

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov