A suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport last month has reminded Russians, and the world, of the country's continuing vulnerability to terrorist attacks. As in the past, the Russian authorities blamed Islamic extremists for the violence and promised retaliation. That reaction is certain to intensify the cycle of violence that has left a bloody trail of victims in its wake. Islamic extremists may have worn the explosives that killed 35 people and injured 168 others, but Russian terrorism cannot be blamed on militant Islam alone.
Sadly, Russians are not strangers to domestic terrorism. There were 29 suicide attacks in Russia in 2010; 19 terrorist attacks were "major," an increase from 10 the year before. In 2010, 108 Russians were killed by terrorists. In a national speech, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called terrorism "the main threat to security of our state."
That is a remarkable admission for the head of a government who took power on the back of a promise to protect the country from that very threat and whose government has consolidated a domestic security apparatus — with all the resulting sacrifices of personal liberty — on the basis of that pledge. Then President (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin first took office vowing to crush Chechen secessionists who had demanded independence and allegedly blown up Moscow apartment houses, killing 293 people, to make good on that demand. (That "allegedly" is important: Not only have the perpetrators not been caught, but some suspect the Russian security forces planted the bombs to provide a pretext for the Russian show of force in Chechnya that followed.)