Cherkasov: wrong treatment of Caucasians gives rise to terrorism in Russia

In the opinion of Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the board of the International Society "Memorial", one of the roots of terrorism in Russia is that residents of the Caucasus are treated not like other citizens of Russia, moreover, not like Muscovites. And in the opinion of political scientist Sergey Markedonov, today the war on terror is seen exclusively as a police action; but the problem cannot be solved by police operations only.

"Media keep talking about 'Chechen separatism', whereas the separatist project was closed two and a half years ago. The Caucasus is the first victim of its terrorism. There are much more explosions there than in Moscow. And, unfortunately, even 'thorough collections' of the events of the last decade fail to mention, for example, the electric train explosion in Essentuki. Poor people and students went by electric train and - dozens of casualties. Why are they worse than those who were killed now in the metro, or earlier at the Avtozavodskaya station?" Alexander Cherkasov said at the recent discussion of the terror acts in Kizlyar and Moscow, where the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was present.

According to Mr Cherkasov, the modern terror was created not by terrorists. And attempts now are committed not on state officials as before, but on ordinary people.

"Police measures, the most primitive ones - the first that comes to mind. The end-to-end police control never solves the problem," said Alexander Cherkasov and emphasized that the problem of terror demands an increased professional approach.

He has also stated that "without having studied the phenomenon, without letting experts and society to discuss it, we drive ourselves into fear and give ourselves into the hands of stupid police force."

Sergey Markedonov, head of the division of the problems of interethnic relations of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, agrees with him. "Unfortunately, today the war on terror is viewed exclusively as a police operation," political scientist Markedonov said at the same discussion and noted that "a liquidated terrorist will remain sacred for those who would like to follow the shahid way."

"These are not the people who have surrendered, cooperate with the inquiry and give evidences. It's already a bit different situation," Sergey Markedonov believes.

According to his story, if we add to this the methods of information influence, which the state should and can use, it will be much more effective than catching and point-wise liquidation of terrorists, who "cannot tell about their links, cannot disclose anyone and can give no understanding of the essence of those structures, which oppose the authorities today."

"They oppose the Russian, I don't want to say 'state' - it is categorically wrong, since the Russian state, if we understand is as a scope of bureaucrats, suffers least from explosions. They are triggered not in the building of President's administration, not in the Red Square and not directly in the FSB. In that metro, there were no high-ranking officials; there were students, couriers, kindergarten tutors, our neighbours - ordinary people. This was an antisocial act," the political scientist noted.

Therefore, according to his story, terror acts are shocking; they cause great fear. "Should the state in this situation resort only to political actions? Should it do without a serious dialogue with the experts' community? With the society as a whole? I think it shouldn't," Mr Markedonov said at the discussion in Moscow.

On March 29, the Moscow Political Club of the "Rosbalt" Information Agency held a discussion: "Who blew up Moscow and Kizlyar: Islamites, separatists or just bandits?" The roundtable brought together journalists, political scientists and other experts. Apart from Cherkasov and Markedonov, the discussion was supported by Geidar Dzhemal, Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, Igor Krotchenko, editor-in-chief of the magazine "National Defence", and Evgenie Satanovskiy, President of the Middle East Institute.

Geidar Dzhemal, Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia scarified the actions of the authorities and inadequacy of their reaction to terror acts and even assumed that the actual is a threat of Russia's loss of its sovereignty because of inability to ensure safety of its citizens. However, later he noted that "new terror acts are hardly possible", since "all the effects" that terrorists wanted to achieve, have been already achieved.