Take with a Grain of Sultanov

The Muslim News carries a report derived from BBC Monitoring about the recent massacre in Jordan:

Russian experts see Israeli, US links in Jordan blasts, Lebanon murder

The “expert” on the Jordan bombs is Member of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Shamil Sultanov. Sultanov believes King Abdullah (“who, by the way is half-English”) may be behind the bombing “to strengthen his personal authority”, but also that (square brackets in original):

…the second theory I adhere to is the Israeli connection. Abu-Mazin [Mahmud Abbas], the leader of the Palestinian National Authority, is seriously ill. And many believe that his Fatah party may not win with such a leader, that it will definitely not win the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in the next few months. So for a very large number of players – for the Americans, for Israel, for Sharon, for the Egyptians – [Palestinian Minister of Civilian Affairs Muhammad] Dahlan would be the optimal player and politician to replace Abu-Mazin. In that sense, these explosions, and in particular the murder, as a result of one of the blasts, of Bashir Nafi, the Palestinian National Authority’s military intelligence chief in the West Bank, is, from my point of view, a clearing of the way for Dahlan.

Sultanov’s analysis was broadcast on Russian Mayak radio on November 11. This was the day after the BBC reported that al-Qaeda in Iraq had claimed responsibility; a development the interviewer felt no need to challenge his “expert” with.

Unreported, however, is the tiny detail that Sultanov is a member of the far-right Rodina (“Motherland”) political bloc. They’ve featured on this blog before; it was a Rodina parliamentarian, Alexander Krutov, who was behind the notorious petition which demanded the banning of Judaism back in January. Finnish analyst Inna Rogatchi described the bloc thus:

The only difference of Motherland block with a grass-root neo-nazis in Russia is that its leadership has been covered with a scientific titles, they are present themselves as doctors of science in different areas… there is hardly anyone in Russia who is mislead on the real stand of Motherland block – their speeches are quite clear and presents their views in full. The real problem is that too many of the Russian people, especially those aged between 45 and 55, seems to share this stand.

A short profile of Sultanov is available from the US-Russia Business Council:

Syltanov, Shamil Zagitovich

Affiliation: Rodina

DOB: May 16, 1952

Shamil Sultanov is currently a member of the Committee on International Affairs. He is a member of the analytical group the Association on Foreign Policy, the Party of Islamic Renaissance and the editorial board of the newspaper Unity. Prior to his tenure in the Duma, Mr. Sultanov worked in the Research Center on International and Interregional Economic Issues. In 1995, he became a member of the National Council of United People of Russia. A journalist and a political scientist, Mr. Sultanov has served on the editorial boards of several magazines and newspapers and is the author of numerous books and publications. Shamil Sultanov graduated from the international journalism department of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Here’s a bit more from Sultanov the “political scientist”, via an interview with the Kavkaz Center:

On September 11, 2001 Osama Ben Laden announced that he had nothing to do with the terrorist acts, and that these attacks were conducted by the right wing, who are against the sway of Jewish bankers. There is a good trustworthy chance that he really did not participate in these terrorist acts, but due to some reasons (maybe secret services played a certain role in it), he to a certain extent funded the American fundamentalists. So, there must have been some contacts with terrorists, if you take into account financial capabilities of the Saudi millionaire.

According to Pravda, Sultanov also believes that the West is plotting to break up Russia by 2015, and that

…The West wants to remove Putin and his team from power. They want to put their puppet on top and get Russia ready for sale.”

As we’ve seen before – keeping in with Putin tends to be a very good career move. Especially if you have no other talents than those of the demagogue.