War as Terrorism

It was an unpredictable weekend and somehow I missed out on the important news of an ATACMS attack on a beach in Sevastopol and on the two terror attacks in Dagestan, one involving the murder of a priest and attack on Christian churches, the other involving attacks on synagogues.

Concerning Sevastopol, a very pro-Russian area of Crimea, and a very important Russian Black Sea naval base, this is seen as a conventionally legitimate target by Ukraine. In this event several ATACMS were fired, only one go through. There was an airfield nearby and I believe this was almost certainly the target but that the missile was hit by a Russian air defense missile which tragically exploded over the beach. Perhaps those who sent it recklessly assumed that air defense would not hit it if it was flying over beach. These kinds of instances have been common in the history of Russian strikes on Ukraine where parts of the successful interceptor mingled with the remains of the stricken missile and fall to earth often striking buildings and citizens as they fall, thus feeding into Ukrainian claims of Russian atrocities. The attacks in Dagestan are reportedly intended as a blow intended to stir up religious confrontation between Christians, Jews and Muslims and carried out by ISIS-K. The ultimate objective is the fragmentation of the Russian Federation. The timing strikes me as pretty standard CIA-Mossad practice, operated through proxies, given a long history of western manipulation of extreme Islamic movements for outcomes that align with covert western foreign policy goals. As well documented in the case of Syria. The Dagestan attacks followed an incident in Rostov where prisoners took hostages. ISIS-K claimed responsibility. The attackers in Dagestan have all or almost all been captured. Many were members of the same family. These ISIS-K attacks also follow up on the spectacular terrorist ISIS-K Crocus Club attacks in Moscow a few months ago. Russian intelligence is comfortable making the assertion that the Crocus attacks implicated Ukraine. There is a long history of Ukraine seeking to hit above its weight militarily by resort to terrorist attacks that concentrate the attention of mainstream media.