Major terror attack in Russia averted due to tip from CIA.

President Trump and President Putin shake hands at the G-20 summit. Reuters. 

A major terror plot in Russia targeting a cathedral in St. Petersburg has been disrupted thanks to a tip from the CIA. Reuters. The CIA tip allowed Russian security forces to arrest the plotters before they could carry out their attack. The Kremlin claims that Vladimir Putin personally called President Donald Trump to thank him for sharing the intelligence. The plot would have targeted Kazansky Cathedral and other high value targets in St. Petersburg. Russia has detained members of ISIS for the plot.  

My Comment:

The Reuters report seems to be downplaying how complex this attack could have been. It sounds like the cathedral was only part of the attack, other tourist locations may have been targeted as well. A major car bombing at a busy church would probably kill dozens of people and if there were other attacks coming the death toll might have reached triple digits. It sounds like President Trump and the CIA saved quite a few Russian lives here. 

It shouldn't be surprising that we are willing to work with Russia on the terrorism issue. Though we have our differences, we share a common enemy on ISIS and fighting them together makes a lot more sense than trying to fight them separately. ISIS can only survive if the worlds great powers don't cooperate so this was a welcome move. 

I would hope that even during these days of Russia hysteria that people will recognize that this was the right move to make. I can't imagine that people hate the Russians so much that they would be willing to see a bunch of them dead, but given the political climate right now I would not be surprised of there weren't a few voices out there condemning this move...  

The only way this could have been a mistake is if it jeopardized our sources in Russia. That doesn't seem to be the case but even if it was, I think that it was still probably worth it. We have a lot of sources in Russia but not too many chances to prevent terror attacks. Plus we probably got quite a bit of good will from the Russians by disrupting this terror attack. 

I am not surprised that it was a cathedral that was targeted. ISIS has long targeted Christians and for them it is idolatry to have a cathedral. Killing dozens of worshipers and tourists is a main goal for them and their choice of target reflects that. Much like their attacks on Christmas markets and their destruction of historical artifacts, ISIS considers Christians to be fair game. 

A brief perusal of the various media reports covering this story makes little mention of the fact that ISIS was targeting a church. And it is an important one to the Russian Orthadox faith and an important symbol for the city of St. Petersburg. This was an attack on the faith of many Russians and I wish the media would point that out. ISIS has always been religiously motivated and have targeted Christians for genocide. They hate Christians and it shouldn't be politically incorrect to point that out. 

I hope that this event helps Russia-US relations recover a bit. I'm actually fairly impressed that Russia is willing to talk to us at all, given how insane our media is and how much the Democratic Party has demonized them. From the way they talk you would think that Putin was eating babies or something. This incident might help us get back on the right track with Russia.  

Don't get me wrong, we have some major obstacles with Russia even during the best of times. Ukraine seems to be the main sticking point. Our government wants them to give Crimea back to Ukraine while Russia doesn't want to give it up. As long as both of those things are true there is going to tension, but we don't need to make things worse. Helping them prevent a major terror attack is a step in the right direction.