The police of the international airport of Brussels, where two bombs were exploded on March 22nd, is going to strike till June 1st, as they believe the security measures taken are insufficient. The police unions demand the introduction of examinations of all passengers before they enter the check-in terminal and to forbid parking closer than 100 m to the terminal; they also insist on better technical equipment to be supplied.
Commenting on the terrorist attacks in Brussels, which led to 32 deaths, the Scientific Director of the Fund of Development and Support of the 'Valdai' International Discussion Club, editor of the magazine 'Russia in Global Affairs', Fyodor Lukyanov, stated: “The terrorist attack in Brussels happened where everyone was expecting it, they prepared to prevent it. Both Russia and the United States had nothing to do with it. It was a kind of systemic incompetence of the EU, which was manifested there. The practice, which we have often observed, especially since 9/11, shows a simple thing, that a threat to national security, a threat to the security of citizens, can be prevented if a state relies on itself.”
Lukyanov cited the former CIA chief George Tenet, who described the meetings of Russian and American special services workers after 9/11; he wrote that “it has never been real cooperation, those were meetings between spies.”
“What is happening now may not change the attitude towards Russia, but simply shift priorities. Europe will be busy soon. Because, God forbid, another one or two terrorist attacks of this kind, and especially if something happens in Germany, where the special services are stronger than in Belgium, there will be a very powerful reversal of public opinion, which will lead, I think, to serious political shifts. A structure of the political parties, the political landscape will change. Whether this is good or bad for us is another question. But such a weakened, sluggish and terrified Europe brings nothing good to the world. Europe may become the subject of a new struggle for influence, and this also brings nothing good.”
