Is The West Following A Double Standard With Russia On Terrorism?

Russian President Vladimir Putin. © RIA Novosti. Aleksey Nikolskiy

Putin Still Sees Double Standard With West On Terrorism -- CNN

When I was CNN’s Moscow Bureau Chief I participated in a round-table discussion with Vladimir Putin, then president for the first time, in the Kremlin library. Sitting next to him, just to his right, I could see how even the word “Chechnya” infuriated him. After all, it was Putin who, in 1999, launched the second Chechen War.

Thursday, in his annual national call-in, “Direct Line,” in which he fielded questions from Russians for almost five hours, Vladimir Putin showed that he still has a deep current of anger toward Chechen terrorists, along with a deep grudge toward the West for what he perceives as its double standard on terrorism.

The Russian President got a question during Thursday’s call-in from a viewer described as a Russian now living in the United States, Mikhail Smurygi, who told him, “In the wake of the terrorist attack in Boston, many Americans turned against Russia, as the terrorists were from the Caucasus.”

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My Comment: He is right. I have always commented that if Chechnya had refrained from committing terror attacks on Russia and on neighboring Muslim dominated Russian provinces .... they would never have been invaded in 1994 and later again in 1999 .... and would now be enjoying a certain degree of independence from Russia today. But no .... radical Islamists had a different agenda .... and we are now in the mess that we are in today.

As to the West's reaction and commentary on terrorist acts in Russia .... bottom line .... if the Beslan massacre had occurred on U.S. soil .... trust me .... we would not even be having this discussion.