Igor Bondarenko
President of the European Academy of Security and Conflictology
Professor, Doctor of Law
After the tragic events in London on the 22d of March 2017, in my article I gave prediction that terrorists soon might show themselves again, but at the same time change tactics, by using "traditional" bombs instead of vehicles crashing into the crowd (see "Rossiyskiye Vesti" №3-4, 2017). Unfortunately, this happened exactly two months later - on the 22d of May 2017, but this time in Manchester. A native of Manchester, 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Raman Abedi put into action an "infernal machine" in the foyer of the Manchester Arena, where the concert of popular American singer Ariana Grande was held. The photo model, the author and the performer of own songs on coincidence of circumstances was practically the same age as the terrorist. Her concert attracted mostly young people. As a result of a powerful explosion of bomb, that was stuffed by striking elements, 23 people died, two of whom were 8 and 18 years old and 120 people were injured of varying severity. The victims could have been even more if Abedi had been able to pass directly into the auditorium with his lethal load, but the security of the concert hall had suspected something and detained him at the entrance. However, the concert was already over and the crowds of young people began to leave the auditorium, accumulating in the foyer. The stadium's security service is blamed in the incident. According to eyewitnesses, there were no metal detectors at the entrance, which are used in Russian schools even during the USS, and visitors' bags were not even examined.
Again, as in the case of the terrorist attack in London, a British citizen acted, whose family run away from the cursed in the West, Libyan leader Maummar Gaddafi in the early 1980s. However, it turns out that Salman Abedi visited his parents' homeland in Libya and, apparently, was trained in a local cell of banned in many countries of the world including Russia - DAISH (ISIS). In cooperation with the international criminal community, the suicide bomber brothers are also suspected. It is quite strange gratitude to the authorities of Britain from the side of Abedi family for granted asylum.
However, in recent years recruiters of ISIS have chosen migrants as their executors, who have long settled in the West and, therefore, cause less suspicion than those who have been settled in recent times. However, like in many other cases, a potential terrorist falls into the field of view of the special services, which, according to the established "tradition", do nothing at all. Feverish arrests are made "post factum". 8 people suspected of involvement in the crime at the "Manchester Arena" were detained. An apartment was also found, in which, there was another bomb in the semi-finished state.
Still, one detail of the regular terrorist attack attracts attention. The goal was not just a crowd, as it already was in Nice, Berlin and London, but young people and teenagers. It was this audience that attended the concert of the American singer. In all likelihood, the supporters of jihad sought to enhance the psychological effect, causing panic in society.
There is an impression, that the recent terrorist attacks are part of a single strategic plan. Together with the wave of migrants that swept Europe, all together this should disseminate an atmosphere of instability and insecurity among Western society, that means to undermine what was considered as its foundations. Britain with its conservative traditions was chosen as an "exemplary-indicative" target. Gradually the idea is suggested that it is almost impossible to fight with terrorism, which contradicts a normal logic. After all, it is enough to cut off the channels of financing terrorists and to eliminate the sustenance environment for them. It is necessary to create a mechanism of integration of all migrants into the European socio-cultural community. But this for some reason does not happen.
It should be noted that the number of terrorist attacks on the basis of radical Islam begins to grow significantly in recent years. In total for the period from 1970 to 2015 in Europe it was registered about 12.6 thousand terrorist attacks, 54 or 0.5% of which were accounted for jihadists attacks. Now these numbers are starting to change. The consequences are likely to be serious enough. Unfortunately, Manchester, apparently, is not the last point in this series of terrorist attacks.
If the criminal chain would not be broken, then Europe can expect a very significant change in the political landscape of the entire post-war history. The victims of this process will be, first of all, those who are called the "middle class" and who will be replaced by lumpenized and well-influenced masses. There will arise a state of controlled chaos, which can easily go into an uncontrolled, or into controlled but managed not by those who conceived it, as has already happened more than once in history.