Islamists advancing on Russian territory

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Kremlin

Reports out of Russia appear to be confirming that the suicide bomber in Monday's attack at Domodedovo airport, which killed 35 and injured nearly 200, may have been a convert to Islam on jihad, according to a Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Authorities haven't revealed all details of the attacker, but analysts now are raising concerns that the explosion may have been an opening shot by al-Qaida in a war over central Asian territory, including parts of Russia, it wants as its own.

Militants in the northern part of Afghanistan and central Asia appear to be trying to convince Russia that they should be in control of its predominantly Islamic southern tier provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetica, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria.

Analysts even wonder if the goal is for those regions to become "separate" from Russia.

Such discussions go against the official Kremlin position, which has been infusing the region with investments while increasing Russian military action against the Islamist militants.

Russian concern is that other provinces could initiate similar rebellions and that ultimately would threaten the very cohesion of the Russian Federation itself.

"The Soviet empire died not along the periphery but at the center, when ethnic Russians decided that it was not worth fighting to hold the non-Russian republics or even concluded that Russians were spending for too much of their wealth on developing peoples who were anything but sympathetic supporters of the empire," said Paul Goble of the Washington think-tank Jamestown Foundation.

Islamist attacks are increasing and becoming more ferocious, prompting Russian public opinion to begin to conclude that further investments and efforts to hold on to the region may no longer be worth the trouble.

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