Center for Security Studies

From an Existential Threat to a Security Risk and a Conceptual Impasse

From an Existential Threat to a Security Risk and a Conceptual Impasse

Terrorism in Russia

Author(s): Aglaya Snetkov
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder, Aglaya Snetkov
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 93
Pages: 2-4
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute of History, University of Basel
Publication Year: 2011

Russia's war against terrorism has now been ongoing for over a decade, however as demonstrated by the recent terakt in Domodedovo airport on 24 January 2011, the threat is not going away anytime soon. This article takes stock of the way in which Russia's position towards terrorism has evolved since 1999, suggesting that the threat posed by terrorism has gone from being presented as an existential threat to the Russian state and nation to something more akin to a security risk in recent years. As it appears that currently the Russian authorities are experiencing a conceptual impasse over the direction of counter-terrorism policy, the author presents a pessimistic prognosis for Russia's attempts to successfully manage the terrorism problem in the next few years.

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