US Feeding Russian Extremists in Caucasus

Russian extremists in the Caucasus led by Doku Umarov have established an elaborate network of intelligence and finance with western organizations who try to justify their activities as a war of liberation, media sources in Moscow said.
“In the Russian Caucasus, Doku Umarov and similar leaders only exist because of an elaborate network of financiers and influential policymakers who portray their war of terrorism as a liberation struggle. Terrorists such as Umarov are best understood by their connection to the various organs of Western intelligence,” Eric Draitse said in an article for Russia Today.

He said that one of these organizations which is in direct relation with the US government is the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC), previously known as the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya which is founded in 1999 by Freedom House and receives funds from the National Endowment for Democracy and other US democratization initiatives.

He added that as the oil-rich Russian Caucasus is situated between Syria and Central Asia, it is justifiable that ACPC wants to play a leading role for promoting the notion of separatism and terrorism in Russia to take the control of the area.

Referring to two back-to-back explosions in Volgograd, he said, “The geopolitical realities are brought into stark relief by the unimaginable grief of the families of innocents killed needlessly by these horrific acts of terrorism. In mourning the dead, we must come to understand more clearly, and on a systemic level, how international terrorism operates, and how it is used as a weapon by the forces of empire.”

At least 25 were killed in two terrorist bomb blasts in the Southern Russian city of Volgograd on Sunday and Monday. In the first attack 15 people were killed during a blast at a railway station. Then on Monday, a bomb blast ripped through a trolleybus, killing at least 10 people.

Later in the week, Bill Van Auken in article in the World Socialist Web Site wrote that “there has been open speculation in the Russian press that the latest terror attacks are the work of US-backed regimes in the Middle East in retaliation for Moscow’s diplomatic success in diverting Washington from a direct military intervention to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria”.

“There is no doubt that the Salafist regimes of the Persian Gulf, primarily Saudi Arabia, have been supporting Islamic terrorism in Russia,” wrote Kirill Benediktov in Izvestiya.

“Russia is now strong enough to afford unfriendly measures towards the regimes that have been using the Wahhabi fifth column in order to destabilize the situation in our country.”

Auken added that as President Putin had previously warned, the return of 400 Russian terrorists who were fighting in Syria during the past years, can bring terrorism inside the country.

Auken also said that these events happening just before the Winter Olympic Games renewed the attention to the discussion of Putin and former Saudi intelligence chief Bandar Bin Sultan who is one of the main supporters of rebels in Syria.

According to a transcript of the discussion leaked to the media, Bandar demanded that the Russian government terminate all support for the Assad regime in Syria. In return, he offered a joint energy strategy to prop up oil prices and other inducements.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year,” said Bandar. “The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Putin in response said that Russia would strike a massive military blow against terrorist training camps, which many analysts interpreted the remarks as a threat against Saudi Arabia.

Auken finally concluded that the explosions has raised the question that whether Saudi Arabia is sponsoring the North Caucasus terrorists independently or in collaboration with the US, who both want to take revenge from Russia for their defeats in the Syrian war.

And media sources eventually announed on Wednesday that a grim memorandum circulating in the Kremlin written by Federal Security Services (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov to outline the new security measures throughout Russia, as ordered by President Putin after the deadly Volgograd terror attacks, has warned that the Russian leader has, in effect, vowed to “destroy” Saudi Arabia as he is blaming Riyadh for this horrific crime against humanity.

Of the terror attacks themselves, Russian Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Stepanov is reporting to the Kremlin that the two Volgograd explosions have hurt 104 people, of which 32 were killed, Whatdoesitmean reported.

Volgograd (formerly known as Stalingrad) is located 650 kilometers (400 miles) from Sochi which is the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, and the twin explosions hit a crowed trolleybus and train station.

This FSB memo reports that the trolleybus suicide bomber has been identified as Pavel Pechyonkin, saying that he was born in the Mari El region and joined resistance forces in 2012.

According to this FSB information, Pechyonkin, aged 32, is a former paramedic. In 2012, he joined the bandit underground, having left a note for his mother on his lap top computer. Pechyonkin has since communicated with his parents two or three times via the Internet.

Of particular concern about Pechyonkin for Putin, this memo continues, was this suicide bombers location this past year which the FSB confirms was in radical Wahhabi Salafi and Takfiri-rebel held territories of Syria controlled and funded by Saudi Arabia.