So, the FSB is reporting another major success. They say they have detained “natives of Central Asia” who were planning terrorist attacks on May 9 and were allegedly even preparing to shoot participants in the “Immortal Regiment” march (an annual Victory Day procession in memory of relatives who fought in World War II).
And the media are feeding us all sorts of details about how these villains infiltrated Russian territory on orders from ISIS.
But an important correction needs to be made right away: no one from Central Asia has to “infiltrate” Russia. All they have to do is buy a ticket using their national passport and get on a plane—and they can bring in instructions from ISIS or even from the Nicaraguan Contras. No control, no background or association checks, no serious screening, no real chance of being denied entry.
So why is it that people can so easily come here from countries bordering Afghanistan and other places with high terrorist risk, and then plan to gun down demonstrators?
Because one V. V. Putin and his pocket party, United Russia, have long and consistently rejected every proposal to introduce a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia. They keep spouting nonsense about the legacy of the USSR, a common space, and shared benefits.
“It will alienate the former Soviet republics.” To hell with that. What does it even mean to “alienate the republics”? Alienate them where? Finland and Russia have a visa regime. Who alienated whom, and where to? You go to the embassy, fill out a form, get photographed, give your fingerprints, they check you, and they issue a visa—no alienation involved.
I don’t know what benefit I’m supposed to get from the fact that people from Norway can enter only with a visa, while people from Tajikistan can come even without an international passport.
I would rate the likelihood of terrorists coming from Norway as lower. I would rate the likelihood of heroin being smuggled in from Iceland as lower. I would rate the likelihood of a refugee flow from Luxembourg as lower than from Uzbekistan.
And yet with Norway, Iceland, and Luxembourg we have barriers and borders, while with Uzbekistan we do not.
So when reading reports about “terrorists who infiltrated from Central Asia,” keep this in mind: it’s not that the terrorists slipped in unhindered, but that Putin and United Russia let them in unhindered. They acted as accomplices to the crime.