Shamil Sultanov: "If you want to cope with terrorists, look for special services behind them"

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the attacks in Tehran when two groups of terrorists simultaneously attacked the Iranian parliament building and the Ayatollah Khomeini shrine. The president of the Center for Strategic Studies 'Russia-the Islamic World' Shamil Sultanov told Vestnik Kavkaza about the origins of terrorism.

- What are the reasons for the upsurge in terrorist activity?

- I think this is a common problem, caused by a systemic crisis that mankind is facing today. A characteristic example of this systemic crisis is the sharp increase in nationalism, religious fanaticism and the absence of any general consolidating ideologies. The old ideologies - such as communism, socialism, liberalism - are discredited to some extent, so they disappear. It creates a kind of void, the civilizational vacuum in life meaning. What are we living for? To fill our stomach? Against the backdrop of this vacuum and the system crisis, the role of extremist, radical ideologies is intensifying, which offer an alternative: life is bullshit, only heroic death makes sense. It has always been like this. The woman who committed the terrorist attack in Iran, committed suicide, because she was zombified. She had nothing to live for. Plus, the Iranian terrorist attacks were influenced by US special services. When terrorist attack is carried out, one immediately has to wonder what special service was behind it. Terrorist structures are not created themselves. They arise under the supervision of certain special services that recruit people. The executors of some terrorist attacks in Europe were not Muslims. They were drug addicts, people who were hanging out with prostitutes. It was easy to recruit such people and turn them into agents. Hundreds of people were injured in the series of terrorist attacks in London's subway on June 30, 2005, there was a panic, but then it turned out that the British counterintelligence Mi-5 had set up an exercise to combat the terrorist threat that day. These events coincided in time ... If you want to cope with terrorists, then look for special service behind them".

- Is there no chance that Russia's special services will interact with special services of other countries?

- They should fight powerful structures, organizing attacks, not perpetrators. Russia was called the homeland of terrorists. When the First World War started, all the attacks stopped. Because Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs had its own agents in all these extremist organizations and immediately swept them all up.

- Who do you consider Russia's ally in the fight against terrorism now?

- In the fight against terrorism, I consider the Russian army, the Russian fleet and Russian special services to be Russia's allies. That's all. To a certain extent it's Iran and partly China. But China is too big to be someone's ally. Earlier, I would call Cuba an ally, there were very good special services.

- How would you comment on the current situation in Syria?

- It's still a dead end. We have made enormous efforts there, but without the consensus of global players, without the regional players' consensus, this regional crisis cannot be solved. But there is no consensus. There are contradictions between Russia and the United States, Russia and Europe, now the contradictions between China and Russia on Syria are intensifying. It might take too long, unless a breakthrough happens.

- How do you assess the current relations between Russia and Turkey?

- Objectively, Russia and Turkey are countries that need each other, despite a complicated past. Turkey is the second-largest gas importer from Russia after Germany. Previously, Ukraine was second, and if we deprive Gazprom of the Turkish market, it will not be very good either. Russia is a market for agricultural products for Turkey, Turkey is a good resort for Russia. In addition, the West has a special attitude towards both Putin and Erdogan. And when you have common enemies, it objectively brings you together.

- On Monday, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Maldives and Mauritius severed diplomatic ties with Qatar. Will this somehow affect the global gas market?

- No. The majority of businessmen, who have strong analysts, immediately understood that it is a pretentious game that will not affect either Saudi oil supplies or gas supplies from Qatar. Journalists are stirring up a sensation of this, but a sensation is somewhere else.