By Vestnik Kavkaza
The rapid depreciation of the ruble made Russian citizens focus on the foreign exchange market, which is actually breaking up out of sight due to other events. Against the background of "the euro higher than a hundred" some dreadful news has been lost: The instance of an attack in the Pakistani province of Peshawar, killing at least 148 people, mostly children, of an explosion in the Yemeni town of Rada of a car, packed with explosives, when driving near a school bus, which killed forty people and half of them turned out to be students. In Russia, unfortunately, people may imagine those things well after what happened in Beslan. A series of terrorist attacks in different parts of the Earth makes the experts say that the Islamic State terrorist threat is spreading around the world.
In an interview with "Vestnik Kavkaza" the director of the analytical center of MGIMO, Andrey Kazantsev, said that "the recent terrorist attacks in Australia and Pakistan were roughly coincided. Recently there was also an attempt at a terrorist break in Grozny, probably associated with the "Caucasus Emirate". Considering all the specifics of the North Caucasus situation and especially the Chechen situation, perhaps the attack should be put on a level with the terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Australia. Foreign Islamists, in particular Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, has repeatedly made threats to Russia, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Moreover, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria lots of immigrants from the former Soviet Union are fighting. But these people can easily go back. "
According to Kazantsev, the terrorist attack in Australia has shown that terrorists can even get us across the ocean: "Australia is very far from Syria and Iraq and historically has nothing to do with them. Therefore, none of the major or minor nations of the world have a right to forget about the threat of terrorism. It is the direct responsibility of countries and their special services to save their citizens from the threat of terrorism. In fact, that is why those citizens "feed" their governments by paying taxes.
The attack by the "Taliban" on the school in Pakistan showed that this criminal group is still strong and able to withstand the official authorities in different countries. NATO officially announced the termination of military operations in Afghanistan on the 8th of December. And this inspired the "Taliban". They feel like winners, although after signing the security agreement between Afghanistan and the United States, American troops remain in the country. However, their ability to maintain order and ensure the non-proliferation of the Afghan situation in the neighboring former Soviet countries raises many doubts among Russian experts. In particular, a large group of militants has accumulated at the borders of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. All this creates serious risks for Russia, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. In Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria lots of immigrants from the former Soviet Union are fighting. In our territories there is an active recruitment of extremists. And these people can easily go back. "
Kazantsev сalls to consider that a comprehensive military and economic crisis in the post-Soviet space in 2014 (as evidenced by the Ukrainian conflict and the economic crisis in Russia) weakens the very possibility of post-Soviet states in countering terrorism and religious extremism. "Unfortunately, the media pays too little attention to this problem. In this connection, we can expect that in 2015-2016 the activity of terrorists in the south of the former Soviet Union will increase. Personally, I would recommend the authorities in the post-Soviet countries to pay a little less attention to conflicts with other countries (although this is also an important aspect of the policy) and a little more attention to threats from Islamic extremists. Otherwise this problem may suddenly "explode", and it would be too late to react," the expert said.
