Vladimir Putin’s Propaganda About Fighting Terror Just Suffered A Big Blow

2016/5/17 16:10:20

Putin tries to present himself as the best bet against ISIS. In reality, he’s helped it thrive.

 

Photo: Protesters wearing masks of Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin demonstrate in front of the U.N. Security Council building on Jan. 24, 2012. Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY VIA GETTY IMAGES

 


By Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post

 

WASHINGTON — The last time he visited the U.S., in September of 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin brought the ideal message for war-weary observers of U.S. foreign policy.

 

At the United Nations’ annual General Assembly, he indicated he wanted to address international players involved in the Middle East — the most prominent of which, of course, is the U.S. In the region now, Putin said, “nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life.”

 

“I cannot help asking those who have caused the situation. Do you realize now what you have done?”

 

[…]

 

Putin’s particular style of disinformation relies heavily on that assumption to sow international distrust of American actions. Now a fascinating report from Reuters challenges it. It turns Putin’s question back at him: Do you realize what you have done?

 

The news agency revealed on Friday that the Russian government has had a deliberate policy of sending radicalized Islamists out of Russia — which means they inevitably end up in the central hub of militant extremism, Syria. In one case, officials allowed a militant placed under house arrest to make it to Moscow’s international airport and start a journey that would end in his joining ISIS’s ranks. In five of the instances Reuters tracked, “Russian authorities had reason to deny [radicals] travel documents and prevent them from leaving the country. But according to relatives and local officials, in each case the authorities made their passage possible.”

 

Putin’s government adopted this policy in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi because of its fear that radical Islamists would target the marquee event. The scheme ran at least until then, Reuters reported. But it had important consequences regardless of when it ended A local police officer told the news agency that dozens more Russian radicals left the country after their fellow extremists reached Syria and encouraged them to make the same journey. Again, the militants were able to leave even though Russian authorities had flagged them as individuals of concern.

 

Thousands of terrorists of Russian origin are now thought to be operating in Syria.

 

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