Misha Japaridze / AP
Police officers and a few commuters stand on a nearly empty platform in Moscow long after the explosions.
Today two female bombers successfully attacked the Moscow metro. Explosions ripped through the Lubyanka metro station, which serves the Federal Security Service. Thirty minutes later a reportedly lesser explosion occurred at the Park Kultury Station in central Moscow. The bombs resulted in at least 37 people dead. Although authorities reportedly had advance notice, they were unable to prevent the attack.
When a major event occurs in Russia, the first question is “Who are the perpetrators?” In the former Soviet Union, the answer does not always come easily. Could it be extremists from the Caucasus? Could it be organized crime? Could it be the sitting government? Could it be an accident?
At least 14 attacks and/or explosions have occurred in Moscow between 1996 and 2006, five of which involved the Metro or trolley buses. While many were blamed on the Chechen separatists, the evidence has not always been convincing.
In this instance, however, the attack does fit the pattern of previous “Black Widow” bombers from the Caucasus. First, the women were suicide bombers, and suicide bombing is not a widely used form of attack in the Soviet Union. Second, the target appears to have been the Federal Security Service, and internet chatter indicates the second bomber may have been headed to police headquarters, but lost her way. Third, there were two women involved, as was the case at bombings at the 2003 Moscow Festival, the 2004 downing of two Russian aircraft and the 2004 attack on a school in Beslan, Russia.
What is a Black Widow? The term was coined in approximately 2003 to identify female suicide bombers loyal to Shamil Basayev, the late Chechen warlord. Often the women were the wives or family members of those killed by Russian forces in the Chechen conflict. One of the first incidents of note involving the Black Widows occurred in 2002, when terrorists seized a crowded Moscow theater and demanded an end to the war in Chechnya.
In many cases, the women involved in these attacks are not ideologically committed to the task. For example, when the women involved in the Beslan attack realized they would hurt children, they reportedly protested and were blown up remotely. In other cases, such as in Iraq, women were raped, making them unfit for marriage. They were then convinced that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.
Are the bombings in Moscow of concern to the United States? Possibly. The Caucasus is a major training ground for extremists, similar to Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan/Pakistan, Kashmir and previously the Balkans. Residents of North America have traveled to these regions for field experience, and one should consider the possibility of their intent to bring their experience back to the United States — as was the case with Najibullah Zazi, a legal permanent resident of the United States who in 2008 learned how to make bombs at what the FBI called an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan. Last month, he pleaded guilty for his role in a plot to bomb the New York subway system.
Joan Neuhaus Schaan is the fellow in homeland security and terrorism at the Baker Institute, coordinator of the Texas Security Forum, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Transborder International Police Association. She has served as the executive director of the Houston-Harris County Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council and on the board of Crime Stoppers of Houston, Inc.