Article in Izvestia by Nikolai Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian programs for the Center for Defense Information

Mr Zlobin believes that much of the discord between Europe and America arises from a difference in outlook concerning Islamic terrorism. Where the Europeans see al-Qaeda as something between organized crime and “local” terrorist movements like the IRA or Hamas, the US sees terrorism as another “-ism” akin to communism or fascism, which must be fought on a global scale to defend civilization itself from the ideological nihilism of al-Qaeda. He chides President Putin for siding with the Europeans, and further notes that America exerted great effort to liberate and defend these same European countries from earlier “-isms.” He ended the article by warning President Putin that Islamic terrorists won’t respect the Russian’s neutrality in the Iraq war. Given that Rusians have had their own trouble with Chechen terrorists, I can only assume that President Putin doesn’t see a connection between Iraq and terrorism. I can’t believe that Russia would willingly choose to obstruct the hunt for terrorists. Of course, it is also very possible that the Russians sat out of the Iraq war because Iraq was a client state in hock to Russia for billions.