Lonely wolfis

It is interesting how quickly the hot topic of the Lubyanka shooting was forgotten: just recently all the media wrote about it, and now there is only a scanty Wikipedia page and the latest news from December 20th. And the most interesting thing is that in connection with what happened they do not say the terrible word TERRORISM. Say, a case has been opened about the attempt on the life of an employee, and that's all. It is understandable, in a country where special services eat off so much of the budget, terrorism cannot be not defeated. Terrorism is good in our country only in the form of a "warning" - sort of based on torture and necessary for earning stars for shoulder straps of the "Network" case.

However, what happened at the Lubyanka is, in the current Western sense, called lone wolf terrorism. Timothy McVeigh, who blew up 168 people in the FBI building in Oklahoma City, Hassan Malik Nydahl, who shot 13 people at the American military base Fort Hood, Anders Breivik, who killed 77 teenagers in Norway - that's it. Manyurov, who attacked the reception of the FSB, is inferior in numbers in this regard (he killed two), but in essence the same thing. In the case of terror, it is not so much numbers that are important (here you still can’t overtake mass killers like cancer or car accidents), but symbolism: the state cannot protect its employees on its territory (McVeigh, Nidal) or is not able to protect children (Breivik). The attack on the headquarters of the most powerful intelligence agency in the very center of the country is from the same series.

Why are lone wolves so dangerous? It is clear that such attacks are extremely difficult to prevent, because in this case the main weapon of the special services - infiltration and undercover work - is not effective (even if the FSB were able to do this, and not just torture). However, the most important fear, as the British sociologist Frank Furedi writes, gives rise to the ordinary. Unlike the terrorists of the past, like Carlos the Jackal, who looked like comic book supervillains, the current McVeigh or Breivik are completely ordinary, ordinary people. The fact that they went against the fundamental values of their society is a condemnation of this society, which is not able to pass on its cultural code even to the most ordinary people. Manyurov - the same ordinary. And even his third place in the carbine shooting competition does not distinguish him in any way - they say he took third place out of three in competitions in honor of the 100th anniversary of the local water pump.

But it's also important that the lone wolf engine is a disappointment. Whatever cannibalistic ideology (Islamism, white supremacism, etc.) a person raises to the banner, the first push was provided by resentment. McVeigh and Nidal are US military men disillusioned with the system. Breivik - disappointed in "Western civilization". Manyurov is a former member of the NOD, who, apparently, once sincerely believed in the "Russian world". And here's something, but the reserves of this resentment fuel in Russia are much more extensive than anywhere else.

Mihail Pojarsky 2020-01-05