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In-Between Domestic Terrorism, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS, or How Russia Sees Prospects of Security Cooperation with the EU

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Managing Security Threats along the EU’s Eastern Flanks

Part of the book series: New Security Challenges ((NSECH))

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Abstract

How security cooperation is portrayed publicly indicates the message one actor wants its counterpart to receive. Public discourse following terrorist attacks, inter alia, constitutes a great resource for promoting a state’s agenda utilizing an emerged international attention. Looking at security cooperation discourse can reveal how states pursue their agendas by connecting them to the shared theme, and how their discourse evolves if perceptions of a common threat changes. This chapter examines official Russian discourse towards security cooperation with the European Union in fighting terrorism. It finds a continuous pattern of linking transnational terrorism threats by the Russian government to Russian domestic security matters and establishing Russia’s standing in opposing irregular actors through promoting domestic counterterrorism campaign.

The UK is considered as a part of the EU since GTD data used for this chapter goes up to 2016, when the Brexit process had not yet started.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Vladimir Putin, ‘Speech for the Victory Day Celebration on 9 of May 2017’, kremlin.ru, 9 May 2017, online: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/54467.

  2. 2.

    George Bush, ‘George Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress and the American people’, The Guardian, 21 September 2001, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13.

  3. 3.

    START, Global Terrorism Database, online: https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd.

  4. 4.

    Elena Zhirukhina, The State Application of Repressive and Reconciliatory Tactics in the North Caucasus (2007–2014), PhD Thesis, supervised by Professor Rick Fawn, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews).

  5. 5.

    START, Global Terrorism Database.

  6. 6.

    Charlotte Wagnsson, Security in a Greater Europe: The Possibility of a Pan-European Approach (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), pp. 6–9.

  7. 7.

    START, Global Terrorism Database.

  8. 8.

    The Codebook of the Database of illegal armed groups (DIAG) and the Codebook of the Database of state repressive response (DSRR); first mentioned in Elena Zhirukhina, ‘Protecting the state: Russian repressive tactics in the North Caucasus’, Nationalities Papers, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2018, pp. 374–399.

  9. 9.

    DIAG comprises 3270, and DSRR 6114, dated and geocoded episodes, embraces eight years (2007–2014) and seven federal subjects (the Chechen Republic, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Stavropol Region, and the Northern Ossetia-Alania); Sources: NGOs including Human Rights Centre Memorial, Anti-war movement; official reports of the state agencies including the Ministry of Interior, the National Antiterrorist Committee, Russian government newspaper; and media including Russian national such as Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta, Interfax, Vzglyad, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Trud, Lenta, Vesti, NTV, AIF, Regnum, Izvestiya, RIA, Echo Moskvy, Rosbalt, Baltinfo, NovyeIzvestia, Newsru; regional such as Caucasian Spot, Caucasus News; local such as Groznyy-Inform.

  10. 10.

    Alex J. Bellamy, Roland Bleiker, Sara E. Davies and Richard Devetak (eds) Security and the War on Terror (New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 1.

  11. 11.

    Wagnsson, Security in a Greater Europe, p. 50.

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  15. 15.

    Wagnsson, Security in a Greater Europe, p. 50.

  16. 16.

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  17. 17.

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  18. 18.

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  19. 19.

    Rontoyanni, ‘So Far, so Good?’; Wagnsson, Security in a Greater Europe, pp. 64–65.

  20. 20.

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  21. 21.

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  22. 22.

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  24. 24.

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  32. 32.

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  33. 33.

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  37. 37.

    START, Global Terrorism Database.

  38. 38.

    START, Global Terrorism Database.

  39. 39.

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  40. 40.

    Wagnsson, Security in a Greater Europe, p. 52.

  41. 41.

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  42. 42.

    Elena Pokalova, Chechnya’s terrorist network: the evolution of terrorism in Russia’s North Caucasus (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2015), pp. 187–191.

  43. 43.

    John O’Loughlin and Frank D.W. Witmer. ‘The Localized Geographies of Violence in the North Caucasus of Russia, 1999–2007’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 101, No. 1 (2011), pp. 178–201.

  44. 44.

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  45. 45.

    Souleimanov, ‘Jihad or Security’.

  46. 46.

    Elena Zhirukhina, ‘Informational strategies of radical religious insurgent groups in the North Caucasus’, Politeia 1/72 (2014), pp. 47–60, online: http://politeia.ru/politeia_journal/6/55.

  47. 47.

    Vladimir Putin, ‘The President of Russia answered questions from Russian journalists following the BRICS Summit’, kremlin.ru, 16 October 2016, online: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/statements/53103; U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, The Road to Boston: Counterterrorism Challenges and Lessons from the Marathon Bombings, Report (March 2014), online: https://fas.org/irp/congress/2014_rpt/boston.pdf.

  48. 48.

    ‘Reshenie Verhovnogo Suda Rossijskoj Federacii GKPI09-1715’ (Decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation GKPI09-1715), nac.gov.ru , 8 February 2010, online: http://nac.gov.ru/terroristicheskie-i-ekstremistskie-organizacii-i-materialy.html.

  49. 49.

    US Presidential Executive Order 13224, state.gov , 26 May 2011, online: https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/266637.htm.

  50. 50.

    UNSC, ‘Emarat Kavkaz’, online: https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/1267/aq_sanctions_list/summaries/entity/emarat-kavkaz.

  51. 51.

    Zhirukhina, The State Application, p. 4.

  52. 52.

    Elena Zhirukhina, ‘Protecting the state: Russian repressive tactics in the North Caucasus’, Nationalities Papers, Vol. 46, no. 3, 2018, online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2017.1375905, p. 9.

  53. 53.

    Zhirukhina, Protecting the state, p. 9.

  54. 54.

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  57. 57.

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  58. 58.

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  59. 59.

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  60. 60.

    International Crisis Group, The North Caucasus Insurgency and Syria.

  61. 61.

    Zhirukhina, ‘Protecting the state’.

  62. 62.

    Zhirukhina, ‘Protecting the state’, p. 9.

  63. 63.

    ‘Imarat Kavkaz’ (the Caucasian Emirate), kavkaz-uzel.eu.

  64. 64.

    ‘IG ob”javilo o prisjage vseh boevikov Severnogo Kavkaza al’ Bagdadi’ (ISIS announced that North Caucasian fighter pledged to al Bagdadi), kavkaz-uzel.eu, 23 June 2015, online: http://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/264409/; International Crisis Group, The North Caucasus Insurgency and Syria.

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  66. 66.

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  67. 67.

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  68. 68.

    Recorded perpetrator constitutes Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in START, Global Terrorism Database.

  69. 69.

    START, Global Terrorism Database.

  70. 70.

    ‘Edinyj federal’nyj spisok organizacij’.

  71. 71.

    International Crisis Group, The North Caucasus Insurgency and Syria.

  72. 72.

    ‘Shestoj raz IG vzjalo otvetstvennost’ za napadenija na silovikov v Dagestane’ (ISIS claimed to attack law enforcement personnel in Dagestan six times), kavkaz-uzel.eu, 26 December 2016, online: http://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/294956/.

  73. 73.

    START, Global Terrorism Database.

  74. 74.

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  76. 76.

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  77. 77.

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  78. 78.

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  79. 79.

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  80. 80.

    Wagnsson, Security in a Greater Europe, p. 50.

  81. 81.

    Vladimir Putin, ‘Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club’, kremlin.ru, 22 October 2015, online: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50548.

  82. 82.

    Vladimir Putin, ‘Vladimir Putin delivered the Annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly’, kremlin.ru, 1 December 2016, online: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/statements/53379; Putin, Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

  83. 83.

    Putin, ‘Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club’.

  84. 84.

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  86. 86.

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  87. 87.

    Putin, ‘Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference 2015’.

  88. 88.

    Putin, ‘Press statements with President of France Francois Hollande’.

  89. 89.

    Putin, ‘Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference 2016’.

  90. 90.

    Vladimir Putin, ‘Press statement and answers to journalists’ questions’, kremlin.ru, 30 November 2015, online: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/statements/50850.

  91. 91.

    Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the European Union on the protection of classified information, 1 June 2010, online: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/er/114745.pdf.

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    Joint EU-Russia statement on combating terrorism, 28 January 2014, online: http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/eng/files/41d4b9fc4bb11a050563.pdf.

  93. 93.

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  94. 94.

    Putin, ‘Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference 2015’; Putin, press statements with president of France Francois Hollande.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of International Relations, Prague, Czech Republic

    Elena Zhirukhina

  2. School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Elena Zhirukhina

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Correspondence to Elena Zhirukhina .

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  1. School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Rick Fawn

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Zhirukhina, E. (2020). In-Between Domestic Terrorism, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS, or How Russia Sees Prospects of Security Cooperation with the EU. In: Fawn, R. (eds) Managing Security Threats along the EU’s Eastern Flanks . New Security Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26937-1_9

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