Maxim Momot. Metro

Metro
Maxim Momot

Publication date: February 6, 2004

in Another terrorist attack occurred Moscow. There is hardly a single person who would call him the latter. The subway has been blown up before. But, firstly, there were fewer casualties, and secondly, they were struck not in the passage, but in the train itself. Like any event, a terrorist attack has causes and consequences. However, in our case the difference is small - the war in Chechnya is both.

The explosion has already been linked to the elections. We saw this in 1999, God forbid, we will see it in 2008. The reaction is the same - “we’ll soak it in the toilet.” If things go like this, there won’t be enough toilets for everyone. They propose introducing a special status for Moscow. It's as if he's normal to her now. When entering the metro today, you need not pure intentions, but Moscow registration. You can, of course, also introduce a certificate of loyalty, but this is more likely to increase the salary of personnel.

Olga Kryshtanovskaya , director of the Institute of Applied Politics, in a commentary for RJ said the following: “The task of those people who started all this is to stop the fighting in Chechnya, the terrorist attack is directed directly against Putin . ” But Mr. Rogozin hastened to protect the president from such a blow and not to hold elections - you never know. It is clear to everyone what terror cannot achieve - to stop the war. But we already see what they can achieve.

As for the influence of terror on the situation in interethnic relations, here, according to Olga Kryshtanovskaya, there is no need to expect changes, because these relations are already very bad. Apparently, the global trend of the “clash of civilizations” is affecting Russia. Friendship between peoples has intensified again.

Not all observers share the same position. Vagif Huseynov , director of the Institute for Strategic Assessments and Analysis , does not see a direct connection between the terrorist attack and the elections: “This is just a continuation of the terrorist war, there is a temptation to connect it directly with the elections, but this is not so . ” “One or two terrorist attacks cannot affect the elections ,” he noted in an interview with RJ. “ As polls show, the president managed to find agreement with the majority of the country’s population; his rating today is very high . ” In his opinion, the Moscow events can only affect the situation in Chechnya if the special services have concrete evidence of someone’s involvement in the explosion. I'd like to believe it.

“In general, the population has a negative attitude towards the Chechen war, but I don’t think that this will seriously affect interethnic relations in the country. Society understands that it’s not about the Chechen people, but about their individual representatives ,” says Vagif Huseynov.

A less optimistic assessment was given to RJ by Alexei Malashenko , a member of the scientific council of the Carnegie Moscow Center : “The terrorist attack will have an impact on interethnic relations in Moscow, and very badly. It will not be the police who will beat Caucasians, but ordinary citizens. So, just in case . ” The upcoming elections, in Malashenko’s opinion, are not so important in this situation: “I believe that whether a terrorist attack is connected with the elections or not, does not matter much. Everything is much worse. Terror is becoming untied. Now it is clear: this can happen in the subway, and Anyone can do this, whether because of drunkenness or drugs . "

Apparently, it is indeed unlikely to be able to avoid a certain aggravation of interethnic relations. “Our experience shows ,” says Sergei Lukashevsky , an expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group , “ that each such terrorist attack provokes a wave of violence from law enforcement agencies against national minorities. Chechens and Ingush suffer only because of their ethnicity. Of course, Moscow and Russian “The authorities, ” he continues, “ each time declare the inadmissibility of transferring responsibility to ethnic groups, but little is said about the punishment that is expected in this case . ”

The version of a terrorist attack as the cause of the explosion, according to Sergei Lukashevsky, will most likely be confirmed. Human rights activists hope for a thorough investigation, the results of which will be presented to the public. This did not happen after previous explosions, so public trust in the intelligence services was undermined.

“The terrorist attack is another evidence that there is a war going on in Russia, an internal armed conflict, which the authorities refuse to recognize, ” the expert states. “ Terrorism cannot be defeated only within the framework of the criminal fight . ” Human rights activists continue to defend the idea of ​​peaceful negotiations with the participation of all parties involved in the Chechen conflict. Terrorism, they emphasize, is a gross violation of the human right to life; no political or ideological goals can justify it.

But this is in theory. We know, for example, about the jubilation with which many Palestinians greeted September 11th. We do not know and cannot find out how the Chechen population really feels, since the republic is rapidly building a peaceful life, and the authorities there do not welcome independent sociological research. Why distract people? There is also no one to conduct peace negotiations with - after all, there is no war, there are only a bunch of renegades. Therefore, all that remains is to threaten and promise, promise and threaten again.