Putin's Iron Grip, Forged In The Fires Of Terrorism
This article was originally published at Stratfor.com.
By Lauren Goodrich
Sept. 4 marks Russia’s Day of Solidarity, a remembrance of two brutal terrorist incidents: the start of an apartment bombing campaign in 1999 and the bloody end of a siege at a Beslan school in 2004. Much as the 9/11 attacks changed the national psyche of the United States, those events altered Russia’s trajectory and shaped the identity of the Russian people. They were also key to Vladimir Putin’s rise to the heights of power.
In the late 1990s, Russia was struggling with its identity after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian people, who lost their Soviet nationality and were thrust back into being solely Russian, went through a decadelong identity crisis. The newly minted Russian Federation stretched from Europe and the Middle East through Central Asia and to the Far East, covering 12 time zones and 83 regional divisions. It was home to 160 different ethnic groups, with non-Slavs making up nearly 20 percent of the population.
A bedrock of the Soviet Union was having a single character that transcended race, creed or language. Moscow adopted the Soviet label to unify not only Russian territory but also the diverse territories along its borderlands. The Russian label, on the other hand, inclined toward white, Slavic and traditionally Orthodox identities. But even the latter of these distinctions — religion — was not yet resurgent in post-Soviet Russia after its suppression during decades of state-promoted atheism.
Read More At: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stratfor/2016/09/06/putins-iron-grip-forged-in-the-fires-of-terrorism/#51a70bc85f61
When the apartments there got bombed, 17 years ago, a lot of people think the national government did it to its own people. Referred to in above article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombingsThe article is by Stratfor, whom started out strong as analysts but I think they've largely lost it with their forecasts, at least, nothing special.
