A BLOODY FINISH

The tragedy in Boston was immediately dubbed the deadliest blast since the terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001. Two bombs exploded on 15 April at the finish of the famous Boston Marathon, which is usually attended by representatives from all over the world. Explosive devices planted at a distance of 50-100 metres apart and triggered with an interval of 12 seconds turned the lively sporting event into a bloody massacre. As a result, three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, who was greeting his father participating in the race, while 187 people received injuries of varying severity. According to eyewitnesses, the incident was like a badly-made horror movie. It shocked even experienced doctors at local hospitals. According to them, the most common operation on that day was a mechanical limb amputation.

The ease with which the attack was carried out and home-made explosive devices are no less terrifying than its consequences. The bombs that were made on the basis of pressure cookers and stuffed with metal objects were most likely carried in ordinary backpacks or sports bags and hidden in garbage cans. Then, presumably, they were set off with the help of a mobile phone. However, despite being homegrown, the explosions and what happened right after them were quite mysterious and surrounded with many symbols and bizarre coincidences.

No one has claimed responsibility for what happened. However, theories immediately emerged as to who might be behind the bloody explosions.

The first theory can be called classical. The perpetrators of the explosions are radical Islamists linked with the international terrorist network represented by notorious Al-Qaeda. In this case, the entire incident, no matter how cynical it sounds, looks simple, and most importantly, usual. The explosions in Boston are on a par with major attacks - from bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in the late 1990s to the attacks on the Pentagon and the WTC twin towers on 11 September 2001. This theory is also supported by the fact that similar explosive devices were used for preparing the failed attack on Times Square in New York in 2010. The suspicion is supported by the fact that the bombings happened on the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, and Boston is home to one of the largest Jewish diasporas in America. In addition, the deputy chairman of the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party set up by Muslim Brotherhood, Essam el-Erian, suggested that the explosions in Boston may be due to US support for the French military operation in Mali. In any case, against the background of the consequences of the "Arab Spring" in recent years, the frozen Arab-Israeli peace process and the events in Syria, all the so-called objectives, ideas and behaviour of "subspecies" of Islamic radicals have long become so blurred and confusing that it is difficult to understand which of them sides with whom, and most importantly, what they are actually trying to achieve with terrorist attacks in the West.

According to the second theory, which is backed up by the fact that the special services had no evidence of a terrorist threat, the criminals are "local lads" - so-called patriotic right-wing extremists. The thing is that 15 April marks Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, when the key battles in the war for the independence of the United States are commemorated. Moreover, the same day is the deadline for paying taxes in the United States.

Earlier, authoritative media did not make so many mentions of growth in right-wing extremist and racist groups in the United States. If this was reported, then not by very reputable online publications which also love to speculate on the subject of "world government" and UFOs. However, after the Boston bombings, only a lazy one did not mention this trend that began with the arrival of Barack Obama at the White House. For example, La Repubblica said that if in 2008 the number of such far-right groups was 149, today there are 1,360 of them. However, this phenomenon is not new for the United States. On 19 April 1995, a member of an anti-government group, Timothy McVeigh, organized an explosion in a federal building in Oklahoma City. Both 20 years ago and now, ultra-radicals express their dissatisfaction with the fact that, for example, taxes in the United States are unreasonably high and violate their rights as free citizens of a free country.

Of course, complaints to the federal government by these people have increased significantly recently. In their views, the ultra-right identify themselves as conservatives, traditionalists and holders of ancestral values of the first settlers who landed on the shores of the New World, especially as Boston (another symbol) is a place where, in fact, modern America began. The extreme right, for example, and it's no secret, do not like the black president, whom they also called almost a communist. But they do not like even more Obama's initiative aimed at the establishment of control over the possession and sale of firearms. To many Americans the right to bear "a gun" is holy and represents the basis of free America.

Whether it is a coincidence or not, literally at the same time as the Boston explosions, it became known that the US Senate had rejected the Democrats' proposal to ban the sale of "assault" and repeating firearms to civilians. A few days earlier, Senate also discussed a bill making checks of citizens mandatory while purchasing firearms. If the failure of the bill was called a great victory for the National Rifle Association, Obama openly dubbed the event "a disgrace to Washington," which in itself speaks about the depth of the split between the Democrats and the Republicans. By the way, the last mile of the Boston marathon was dedicated to the victims of the bloody massacre at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, when 26 people were killed, mostly children...

The third theory considers the possibility of terrorist attacks by a lone ideological psychopath like the infamous Anders Breivik, who shot dozens of people at a youth camp. In the US, the perpetrator of the penultimate mass terrorist attack on US soil, Major Nidal Hasan, who shot and killed 13 and wounded 30 people at the Fort Hood base in 2009, was considered to be a lone psychopath. It is believed that individuals are very difficult to find and catch since they have no accomplices, and they rarely share (if they ever do) their plans until the very last moment. But on the other hand, if you think about it, it is easy to put all the blame on such isolated psychopaths...

A very disturbing symbol of the Boston terrorist attack is that it was carried out during a sporting event, which has an international nature. Of course, the terrorist attack committed during the Olympic Games in Munich, when the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September killed 11 Israeli athletes, springs to mind here. The world media unanimously believe that Russia should be especially nervous about this issue because in June of this year, Kazan will host World Students Universiade, Moscow will host the World Championships in Athletics in August and Sochi will host the Winter Olympics at the beginning of 2014. By the way, early in the morning on 19 April, AP news agency quoted its sources as saying that the suspects of the attacks are nationals of Russia, who came from a North Caucasus region near Chechnya. One of them, named Tamerlan Tsarnayev, was killed in a shootout with the police and was wearing a suicide belt at the time of his death. The fact that Olympic Sochi is in close proximity to the volatile North Caucasus region, from where the terrorists came to blow up the marathon in Boston for some reason, is another strange coincidence...

In fact, there are might be many reasons for the terrorist attack just like there are many consequences. For example, one of them was the fall on world markets, which is said to be on a par with other processes such as falling gold and oil prices, falling stocks of some big companies and the rate of Bitcoin ... All this, of course, caused a flurry of theories from fans of "conspiracy theories", which benefited from the explosion and fire at a fertilizer plant near the Texas city with a very, symbolic name - West - the next day after the tragedy in Boston... Incidentally, the cause of the fire was not immediately identified. Moreover, world media report that the Boston attack was described almost in minor details (according to the second theory - the ultra-extremists) in Tom Lonergan's book called "Heartbreak Hill". For example, imaginary attackers planned to detonate several bombs along the route of the marathon in 1996 when the 100th anniversary of the race was marked. Moreover, it is reported that the attack was predicted in the US cartoon "Family Guy", which was released on 17 March. And even a Facebook page of condolences on the explosion in Boston allegedly appeared a few hours before the explosion.

By the way, the tone of discussions on the Boston attack on social networks can also be called a kind of symbol. Most users expressed clear sympathy to the victims of the explosions. But a strange symptom of emotional burnout was also felt. One could often see comments like "an event that hits the world headlines when it happens in the US or Europe is an ordinary occurrence and almost routine in many countries of the world..."