Mikhail Khodorkovsky comments on the recent firebomb attack on a St. Petersburg film studio. 

It’s great that the FSB is working on preempting and neutralising the ISIS fighters who were preparing a terror attack for September 1.  The operatives were not shy to come out and call these acts for what they are: terrorist acts.

It’s bad when they fail and don’t manage to stop the fanatics in time. That’s when the evasion and silence begins.  Like what happened in Surgut a few weeks ago.

It’s even worse when certain types of terrorism are encouraged at the state level.  In this case they pass by unnoticed, or are treated as some kind of isolated phenomenon.

Think about it: a molotov cocktail was thrown into a director’s studio.  He did, in fact, offend someone’s feelings; for instance, the Tsar’s greatest admirer in the state Duma.  Will these fanatics, who hide behind the guise of Orthodoxy, burn down the theatres where the film that they so object to is due to be shown?

Why are the FSB not busy hunting down these extremists? Perhaps because it’s with the help of such groups that people in the Kremlin are busy conducting their dirty deeds under the radar, while avoiding getting any dirt on themselves.

Much in the same way that Alexey Navalny was attacked with green dye, while hooligans trash exhibitions and murders are committed on Moscow bridges?  The government cultivates hatred and already directly encourages terror against its citizens, but for some reason it naively believes that it will not be affected by this wave of terror.

On the night of August 31 a group of unidentified assailants threw a molotov cocktail into the office of director Alexey Uchitel in St. Petersburg. 

According to the publication “Fontanka” the authorities have connected the crime with Uchitel’s upcoming film “Matilda”, which is based on a novel about Tsar Nicholas II and the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya. 

Since the trailer for the film first aired, Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya has been trying to ban the film.  She has repeatedly called for the Attorney General to check the film for ‘violations of the feelings of believers’.  The report stated that experts found no such violations in the film. 

The premiere of Matilda is due to take place on October 26 2017.