Putin’s view of the fight against Islamism is shaped by his belief that Westerners make calculations the same way he does.
Jihadi violence has stalked the Putin administration.
A week before he became prime minister in 1999, al-Qaeda-linked militants invaded Dagestan. The week he became prime minister, a mysterious series of explosions ripped through apartment buildings across Russia. Putin’s forceful response — a full-scale invasion of Chechnya, accompanied with rousing speeches to the troops on the frontline — transformed him from a relative unknown to Russia’s most popular public figure in a matter of months.
