Russian FSB to allow India access to detained IS bomber

While Russia will take approval from Uzbekistan before giving access to Islamic State bomber, the Indian security agencies are keen to dig out the local link who was to supply explosives and target to the terrorist.

Islamic State terrorist from Uzbek detained in Russia.

Russia has agreed into principle to allow Indian security agencies access to detained Islamic State terrorist, who was planning to target members of the ruling BJP or the RSS for alleged blasphemy, after securing approval from the country of radical’s origin Uzbekistan.

On July 27, 2022, the Russian security agency, the FSB, informed their Indian counterparts about the detention of 30-year-old Uzbek national Mashrabkon Azamov, who was planning to commit a suicide bombing against the ruling party representatives in India for alleged blasphemy. Azamov along with another Kyrgyzstan national was radicalized by an IS handler in Turkey as well as through online channels for the mission against India. The terrorist chose the Moscow route to enter India to avoid maximum scrutiny by the Indian immigration authorities.

With India and Russia partners against religious fundamentalism and terrorism, the FSB has conveyed to its Indian counterpart that they will allow access to Azamov after taking approval from Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyzstan national was not picked up by the FSB and apparently went back to Turkey.

Even though Russia has shared parts of Azamov’s interrogation report relevant to the Indian context, the security agencies are keen to dig out the Indian local link that was supposed to supply explosives as well as single out the VVIP target to be hit. The Indian intelligence also wants to find out who is behind the radicalization against India in Turkey, a close ally of Pakistan. The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) terrorist group has its footprint in Telangana and Kerala and is growing in numbers in Afghanistan as a counter to the Taliban. A terror group that wants to capture land and power in the name of propagating medieval Islam, ISKP believes in Sunni supremacy and is against all other sects of Islam. The ISKP in Afghanistan also plays the cat’s paw for the Pakistani deep state to check the Taliban and keep the Sunni Pashtun force under control with savage indiscriminate violence against the Shia Hazaras community including school children and others.

With the Taliban not being able to control large swathes of Afghan territory, the ISKP is expected to expand in the ultra-conservative and already radicalized Emirate and will be a cause of problems to India, bordering Central Asian Republics and China soon.

Biden re-evaluates US relationship with Saudi Arabia after OPEC decision

Biden is willing to work with Congress on the future of Saudi relations, Kirby added.

President Joe Biden is re-evaluating the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia after OPEC announced last week that it would cut oil production, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

“I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “And certainly in light of the OPEC decision, I think that’s where he is.”

Biden is willing to work with Congress on the future of Saudi relations, Kirby added.

Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday called for a freeze on cooperating with Saudi Arabia, including on most arms sales, accusing the kingdom of helping to underwrite the Russian war in Ukraine after OPEC announced last week that it would cut oil production.

Biden was disappointed in the OPEC decision, Kirby said, and “he’s willing to work with Congress to think through what that relationship ought to look like going forward.”

“And I think he’s going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away. I don’t think this is anything that’s going to have to wait or should wait, quite frankly, for much longer,” Kirby added.

The issue does not only concern the war in Ukraine but it is a matter of U.S. national security interests, Kirby added.

NATO tightens security; G7 warns Belarus

NATO said on Tuesday its member states were boosting security around key installations after Russia escalated its attacks on Ukraine. A G7 joint statement also warned Russia’s ally Belarus against any involvement and condemned Russia’s missile strikes, saying attacks on civilians was a war crime.

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenine