The same can be said for Europe and the West in general…..
Should any of the 2,700 Russian IS members return to Russia they would have the training necessary to conduct attacks similar to that in St. Petersburg. The Islamic State has also been teaching supporters online how to make explosives and carry out attacks.
This means that possible future Islamic State terror attacks in Russia might come either from Chechens or other jihadists with Russian passports who fought for IS in the Middle East, or by those recruited online.
The St. Petersburg attack might be a foreshadowing of things to come.
On April 3rd a suicide bomber’s device exploded on a railway train as it was traveling from the Sennaya Square to the Technology Institute station in St. Petersburg, Russia. A second device was found at the nearby Vosstaniya Square station and disarmed. The attack claimed the lives of 14 people (including the bomber) and left 51 wounded.
Russian investigators identified the bomber as Akbarzhon Jalilov, a 22 year-old Kyrgyz-born Russian national living in St. Petersburg since 2011. The Kyrgyzstani security services, the GKNB, has promised to cooperate with the Russians in the investigation. Although no terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the attack Russian law enforcement suspect Jalilov was inspired by Islamic State.
Jalilov’s native Kyrgyzstan is a predominately Muslim country and about 500 Kyrgyz men have gone to fight for IS. The Islamic State has been known to recruit people via the internet so it is possible that IS recruited Jalilov over the web and pushed him to commit the attack.
The St. Petersburg railway bombing would not be the first time Russia had to confront the threat of Islamic terrorism. In 2004 Chechen terrorists raided a school in Beslan, in the Russian province of South Ossetia. Russian troops stormed the building resulting in the death of over 300 people, many of them children.
