Just when you think you have all the pieces to the puzzle firmly locked into place…….The Tundra Tabloids recently posted an article about the Finnish Islamic Party and its chairman’s ties to the Soviet KGB (now the Russian FSB). It’s undeniable that a nexus does in fact exist between Finnish Islamists and the FSB, because regardless of your religious/political affiliations, once they own you, …they do in fact own you.
From that original post sprouted a fruitful exchange with a colleague concerning the ramifications of a reasertive Russian KGB/FSB, and the nexus that may exist between it, and the various Islamic terrorist groups currently waging war against Western, Middle Eastern governments, and yes even against the Russians themselves.
Anyone who has followed the Tundra Tabloids for some time knows that Islamism (both violent and non-violent versions), is the assertive wing of mainstream Islam, and the main focus of this blog. So it only stands to reason that the TT will follow any logical path, wherever it leads, that will help explain the relationships that exist between the jihadis and those that serve to profit from offering them assistance, whether it be directly or indirectly.
That said, what are we to make of Russia’s current aggressive foreign policy in Georgia (outright invasion) that has sent a serious shot across the bow of the West? Predictably, Finland offers a timid response of “no sanctions” against the Russian government, but what about the rest of the free world, what are the Russians really playing at here, what’s their end game? Evidence is mounting to support just that hypothesis, that the Russians are engaging in another Cold War with the West, reinvigorating their connections with international terrorists and using them, the international jihad, as a means to serve their ends.
Questions worth exploring.
How does one explain the Russian/Al-Qaida connection in the face of well known historical facts over the last two and a half decades? How do we explain the nexus between the KGB/FSB and the international jihad while the Soviets were busy fighting the very same people now conducting terrorism around the globe. How is one to interpret that (past Soviet actions), with the claim that the Russians have been on both sides from the very beginning? Is the Russian FSB callus and cynical enough to burn an Islamist terrorist candle at both ends, even if it leads the deaths of their own citizens?
One line of reasoning offers a window into the standard operating procedures of the Russian intelligence community, which has always operated on a different level than the political and military establishment. “Though the Russian Orthodox establishment is the mainstay of the regime… the Russians must be in fact of two minds.”
Actively engaged with two different sets of policies (ideologically opposed) with the hope of undermining the West would be a stroke of darkened brilliance. Being seen 
as an ally on the “War on Terror” while allowing surrogates to train the enemy is something so Putinesque (KGB) that it must be considered as a possibility.
An interview in FrontPageCom of Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile in London, gives a very candid portrayal of Russian FSB intrigue and dirty dealings with terrorists.
“As the former leader of the terrorist organisation Egyptian Islamic Jihad, al Zawahiri was on international lists of most wanted terrorists for many years. In 1997, he suddenly re-surfaced in Russia, where he undertook a special training course at a secret FSB base in Dagestan. After that, he was sent to Afghanistan, and joined Al Qaeda as bin Laden’s number two. Meanwhile, the FSB officers who had supervised him in Dagestan were promoted and re-assigned to Moscow. It was from them that Alexander learned about al Zawahiri.
These and other facts of FSB involvement in international terrorism, revealed by Alexander, have tremendous implications. Contrary to the view of many in the US, Russia is anything but a reliable ally of yours in the ‘war on terror’. The Kremlin is playing a treacherous double game: while enjoying the West’s support as ally, it secretly supports and manipulates the Al Qaeda through FSB agents of influence.
According to the Foreign Policy Association, the US was caught off guard by both “Georgia’s actions and Russia’s reactions“. It would appear that the Russians have succeeded in throwing the West off balance in spite of the fact that warnings of a new “Cold War” have been issued time and again. But in spite of the FPA’s insistence:
“With the exception of Ukraine, the other ex-Soviet republics generally remained silent or passively acquiescent.”
The Baltic states, (former Soviet republics for sure) along with Poland, issued a joint declaration of condemnation which helped to highlight the noticeable silence being heard from the Finnish House of Parliament in Helsinki, where the Finns offered only a meek response to Moscow’s flagrant violation of a sovereign state borders.
Finnish Foreign Minister, Alaxander Stubb, (pictured left) whose country currently heads the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was quoted as saying that: “he doesn’t care to assess blame for the Russian invasion as this might be counter-productive.”
This is the country that currently heads the OSCE, and as I have noted before, its president is on board as being definitely against any kind of talk of European sanctions being leveled at the Russian Federation. Russia has just scored a major hit against the West, which can’t even come close to formulating a cohesive plan to counter what has just happened.
Former KGB Lt.Col, Konstantin Preobrazhensky, warns of Russia falling to Islam in the not too distant future, and contrary to public belief, he explains that the Russians have led a very cosy coexistence with Islam for hundreds of years.
“Tartars have always been patriotic to Russia. Their independent kingdom was conquered by Russia in the 16th century, but their gentry were allowed to join the Russian upper class and enjoy all its privileges. Even today, many Russian families of noble origin have Tartar origins. Russia has a half-millennium of experience in turning conquered Muslim nations into obedient citizens by bribing their elite. […]
In the Soviet period, the highest leadership of the Muslim republics like Uzbekistan were unofficially allowed to practice Islam under the guise of folk rites, even though their Russian colleagues were severely reprimanded for participating in such Christian “rites” as Christmas or Easter. Unlike today, Soviet cartoonists were able to mock Islam as they mocked all other religions and it didn’t bring any special reaction. Muslims of the Uzbek and other Central Asian republics’ elite joined the KGB intelligence in order to spy on fellow Muslim countries. In the KGB, I have met a lot of such quasi-Muslim officers.
Putin continues the traditional Russian policy of giving privileges to the Muslim elite. Today’s Russian Minister of Health care, Mikhail Zurabov, is a Chechen. His political agenda includes the total destruction of the Russian health care system, looking like revenge for the war in Chechnya. Putin shows no concern over that.
Strategically Russia is surrendering to the Muslim world. The Russian population is declining rapidly, being undermined by 70 years of Communist experiment and the cold indifference of post-communist rulers. Annually, Russia is losing 900 thousand people who are being replaced by Muslims from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Islam is now the second-largest religion in Russia, where it may total up to 28 million adherents. Because of this, Russia was able to join the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 2003.”
Let’s face it, the Russians are up to their eye balls in helping to destabilize the West as much as the Saudis are, but unlike the Saudis, the Russians have been better at covering their trail. There has been much discussion of Russia helping Iraq to get rid of its illegal weaponry prior to the resuming of hostilities between Iraq and the UNSC.
Ion Mihai Pacepa, [the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc.] fingered the Russians as having helped to abscond with Iraq’s “missing” weapons of mass destruction.
“As a former Romanian spy chief who used to take orders from the Soviet KGB, it is perfectly obvious to me that Russia is behind the evanescence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. After all, Russia helped Saddam get his hands on them in the first place. The Soviet Union and all its bloc states always had a standard operating procedure for deep sixing weapons of mass destruction — in Romanian it was codenamed “Sarindar, meaning “emergency exit.” Iimplemented it in Libya.
It was for ridding Third World despots of all trace of their chemical weapons if the Western imperialists ever got near them. We wanted to make sure they would never be traced back to us, and we also wanted to frustrate the West by not giving them anything they could make propaganda with.
All chemical weapons were to be immediately burned or buried deep at sea. Technological documentation, however, would be preserved in microfiche buried in waterproof containers for future reconstruction. Chemical weapons, especially those produced in Third World countries, which lack sophisticated production facilities, often do not retain lethal properties after a few months on the shelf and are routinely dumped anyway. And all chemical weapons plants had a civilian cover making detection difficult, regardless of the circumstances.”
It will take years to unravel everything done by the Soviet and Russian governments, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too long before the West finally takes a better look at what the Russians, under Vladamir Putin, have been up to. So much wasted time and too little to show for all the wheel spinning that has been done in the name of fighting IsalmOfascism. It’s high time we put Russia back into the spotlight and start scrutinizing its activities under the rubric of past events concerning the rise of international jihadist terrorism. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. KGS
