Comment on Terrorist attacks are on the rise in Russia as Putin remains 'distracted' by war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin.ALEXANDER NEMENOV via GettyGunmen attacked Orthodox churches and synagogues in Dagestan on Sunday, killing around 20 people.The attacks raised questions about Russia's domestic security as it continues its war in Ukraine.Experts told BI that Russian security services were likely "distracted" by the invasion.On Sunday evening, gunmen attacked two Orthodox churches and two synagogues in Russia's predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, hurling Molotov cocktails and exchanging fire with police.The attacks, which killed around 20 people, raised major questions about whether the Kremlin has the resources to protect its citizens back home while pursuing its war in Ukraine.The incident "caught security forces completely off guard," Lucas Webber, a research fellow at the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank, told Business Insider — despite the fact that it would have required "quite a bit of planning and preparation beforehand."The attacks also illustrated "the diverse range of militant actors Russia has angered through its domestic and foreign policy actions," he added.The Institute for the Study of War reported that the Islamic State's (IS) Northern Caucasus branch, Wilayat Kavkaz, was likely behind the attacks, noting that they had "increased fears within the Russian information space about further terrorist attacks and instability in the North Caucasus."Five of the six gunmen said to have been killed in the attack also had connections to the Dagestan region's political elite, according to the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington DC-based think tank.Around 20 people were killed in the armed attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent.Anadolu/Getty ImagesThe attacks marked the latest in a series of major domestic security failures that have plagued Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Such incidents have presented a major problem for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose reputation as a strongman able to guarantee security and order in Russia while also waging a war against Ukraine appears to be flailing.Earlier this month, security forces stormed a detention center in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don where six inmates linked to Islamic State had taken two guards hostage.