The Paris attacks signify the broadening of an "area of darkness," of places targeted by the Islamic State, into Europe. The jihadists are not making a distinction between Russia and France. This compels Russians and Europeans to reflect on what they have in common despite their many differences.
Russians can be evacuated from Egypt and they do not have to return there, but you cannot take Parisians out of Paris or keep Frenchmen out of France.
The massacres in Paris last Friday represent what could be called the opening of a "second front" for the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The jihadists' main area of operations remains the Middle East and their main victims are still the people of Iraq and Syria. In the last few weeks, the jihadists have committed horrific atrocities in Ankara and Beirut.
But by attacking Russian and French civilians, the Islamic State is extending the "borders of darkness" within which it operates. It is throwing down a challenge to Russia and the Western powers, who are still adversaries over Ukraine but now, find themselves sharing the pain of suffering attacks by the same perpetrator.
For the jihadists, there is no difference between Paris and St. Petersburg, the home city of the passengers who died on the Metrojet Airbus A321 that crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on October 31. They believe that they are waging war against the Western world, Western culture, and global modernity. Paris is getting punished for being one of the places that gave birth to modernity, just as New York was in 2001.
The Western culture that was assaulted in Paris is grounded in rationality, and the right response at this critical moment should be a rational one. It would be odd for the West to be swayed by the approach of the most emotional critics of the Russian regime, who insist on not doing, writing, or saying anything that Putin might like.
Of course, the Ukraine issue cannot simply go away. There is still a lot of difficult negotiating to do and Ukraine cannot just be traded away. On the other hand, Ukraine should not be a reason for carrying on as before when other threats emerge.
The Islamic State problem is bigger than the Iranian nuclear program, the maintenance of the International Space Station, or the transit of NATO cargo to Afghanistan. It deserves separate consideration, irrespective of grievances against Russia on other issues. The Obama-Putin meeting at the G-20 summit in Turkey reflected that and showed that the two presidents have an interest in more than merely frustrating one other.
The synchronized attacks on the Russian airplane over Egypt and in Paris connect the Russian and Western campaigns in Syria. True, Russia was not invited by the West to join the campaign in Syria. Russia did so for its own reasons. Russian citizens have the right to question their government's actions--though unfortunately few channels for doing so. But Western politicians should respect the fact that residents of both Paris and St. Petersburg have now been targeted by the same perpetrator. It is not really appropriate to discuss whether one country or another is more to blame--we should only say that the Islamic State is above all a consequence of the 2003 Iraq War, and that everything else is secondary.
There is a deeper reality here, which is that the jihadists' attacks render meaningless all talk of Russia as a "unique civilization." Russian ideologists and politicians have gotten used to describing Russia as "a good Europe" or, better still, as not Europe at all. To them, Russia is not the West, but rather a world of traditional conservative values that Russia shares with "the East."
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