Now that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack against a Russian airliner that killed 224 people, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that his country will wage a total war against the terrorist organization. Needless to say, ISIS has picked a very intimidating enemy.
At the present time, investigators are still examining the data from the black boxes of the aircraft in order to properly determine what exactly caused the aircraft to crash. However, all relevant data says that an explosive device that was placed in the airplane’s cargo hold caused the devastating airplane crash.
The Sinai unit of the Islamic State is currently the leading suspect in the matter. The group already posted a video challenging people to prove that they weren’t responsible.
Russia is already fighting against ISIS in Syria, but the attack will likely only pressure Russia to take more actions against ISIS. With one of the world’s most powerful militaries at their disposal, the terrorist organization will have a very hard time keeping up with Russian forces.
Russia is currently working in Syria to do everything it can to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power. Meanwhile, other countries such as the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are trying to bring Assad down.
Despite the recent terrorist attack, Russian citizens are still hesitant about the country’s airstrikes that are taking place in Syria. Defense and security expert Raffaello Pantucci said, “Russia has dealt with all sorts of terror attacks at home and the population is fairly resilient to them.”
Russian defense expert Igor Sutyagin also believes that the attack will not lead to increased activity from Russia against ISIS. Sutyagin states that Putin originally envisioned the country’s activity in Syria to be that of a “remote bloodless war”. It is likely that Russia will want to stick to that plan.
Sutyagin also stated that Russia is primarily concerned with ensuring that its interests in Syria and the Middle East are met. Fighting against ISIS is only a secondary concern.
Still, it’s hard not to imagine the country getting riled up after this recent attack. After 9/11 in America, many citizens wanted to immediately attack those who were believed to be responsible. It’s not much different in this instance.
Needless to say, the situation in Syria is very likely to become even more interesting.
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