ATTACK IN GROZNY: RUSSIA CHURCHES BECOME IRRITANT FOR TERRORISTS
F.S.B. agent sees dangerous trend in attacks on buildings of RPTs
by Darya Fedotova
Moskovskii Komsomolets, 21 May 2018
The Chechen terrorists, like the Kizlyar militants three months ago, did not choose by chance the Russian church of Archangel Michael in the center of Grozny for their attack. According to F.S.B. reserve Major General Alexander Mikhailov, "for militants, RPTs buildings have become a provocative factor." At the same time, the expert says, unfortunately it will not be possible to protect parishioners of Russian churches from militants, on the spot, so to speak.
"Today, for persons who keep to their Islamic separatist positions, the Russian Orthodox Church and its institutions are an irritating factor; that's a fact. They do not climb into Muslim mosques but they view Russian churches as objects of offense. By such public actions they often are pursuing only one goal—to demonstrate that they exist. In general, that is what happened in Grozny—a very alarming trend. Nevertheless, for some time it has become even calmer than in several regions of central Russia. And what happened does not fit well into the general picture of the rule of law. I still cannot understand the terrorists' actions—was it an act of despair or public desecration of a church," the reserve F.S.B. Major General Alexander Mikhailov told MK.
Also, MK's expert does not rule out that the latest attack of terrorists is its own kind of response to the special operation in Syria. We recall, by the way, that the head of the Chechen republic declared that the militants were directed from abroad.
"It doesn't simply just happen like this. Of course, this is payback for Syria as well. But unfortunately we still will not be able to learn anything first hand. . . ." Mikhailov clarified.
He also explained that it is unthinkable to strengthen security at every Russian church, because of the great number of RPTs buildings.
"One can oppose the terrorists only at the stage of planning, discovery of persons, and preparations. It is necessary to strengthen the operational component of the special services. However today it is not at a very respectable level. Much is being done for the security of citizens and special services have great achievements, data bases, agency works, and so forth.
At the same time it turns out that the daring attack on the church in the center of Grozny involved teenagers who recently graduated from high school. Thus, for example, among the attackers were the 18-year-old natives of Chechnya, twin brothers Amir and Ali Yunusov, and also Mikail Elisultanov, who also has a twin brother. In addition, a 19-year-old resident of Ingushetia, Akhmed Tsechoev, participated in the attack.
It is curious that in the intelligence regarding Elisultanov (according to some reports he is a student of the financial department of laboratory diagnostics of a Chechen basic medical college), besides his twin brother Mansur (it cannot be ruled out that law enforcement is dealing with him) his 25-year-old brother Vakhit also is mentioned. Mansur Elisultanov's page on a social network, for example, does not abound with friends. At the same time, judging by the content of reposts, one of them is an extremely religious person. Among the pages interesting Mansur's friend are some like "I love Islam," "Islam is my religion," "Islam," "The Heart of a Muslim," and "Allah and His Messenger Prophet Muhammad." (tr. by PDS, posted 21 May 2018)
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