The suspected gunmen “tried to hide and moved toward Ukraine,” Russian president says in televised address. Kyiv denies any involvement.
The suspected gunmen “tried to hide and moved toward Ukraine,” Russian president says in televised address. Kyiv denies any involvement.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Saturday suggested that terrorists who killed at least 133 people in Friday night’s attack at a Moscow concert hall were helped by someone based in Ukraine, without providing evidence.
Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement in the massacre, for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil in recent years.
Putin said 11 people have been detained in the killings, including the four gunmen. “They tried to hide and moved toward Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border,” Putin said in a speech on Russian television Saturday.
Putin's government was warned weeks in advance and dropped the ball badly. Now they need to turn bad press into useful press by placing blame on Ukraine so Russia stays focused on that war. I sincerely doubt they have the military power available to start meaningful reprisals against Islamic State in Afghanistan.
Putin ran a false flag terrorist operation to get into power in the first place. Attempting to redirect the blame for an actual terrorist attack (assuming, of course, it’s not just another false flag) would genuinely be less extreme - and, in point of fact, the 1999 apartment bombings had like 3x the death and injury counts that this attack had.
I'm not saying they dropped the ball on purpose but they obviously had some knowledge about it. Though authoritarian regimes don't tend to be good at security either way. They're good at oppression, but that's not the same thing.
I don't know - it's possible as I've heard of Islamic State being linked to several nations. However, OP's article mentions Afghanistan specifically:
"A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies had learned the group’s branch in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow and shared the information with Russian officials."
Syria, or more precisely supporting Assad to ensure they keep their port, is why Russia is in ISIS' crosshairs. Why wouldn't ISIS strike in Moscow if they get the chance?
Ahh yes. Putin is warned. Putin chooses to allow it. Putin blames Ukraine, justifying more action against Ukraine. Russian media are forced to parrot Putin, convincing half the country, and the other half stay silent or fall out of a window.
It doesn't really sound like a false flag because it doesn't really help them and it actually makes them look weak. The security forces are so pathetic that an external security force was able to predict the attack and even told them with weeks worth of warning that this was about to happen.
I'm pretty confident that this attack is actually legitimate, actually happened, was committed by IS, and the Russian security forces are so ineffective that they allowed it to go ahead. But Russia is in "blame everything bad on the Ukrainians" mode. Is zero mystery or intrigue here.
Why would he need any evidence for that? He has more than enough propaganda outlets to spin information and lies however he likes. Without those, he would have been out of job years ago
Doesn't matter if it is false flag is not. The narrative will always be to blame Ukraine. This is really to feed the local population for either buy-in for more mobilization (rumors of spring/summer offensive).
He won't say, oopsie my 350k FSB apparatus screwed up. That will be done in the background with some mysterious window diving.
Since US intelligence notified them weeks ago that this was going to happen, I think it's more likely that either they ignored it and it happened, or more likely that they let it happen to have a good tragedy they could abuse.
I'd say it the second one, since nobody came to the rescue of these poor people for like an hour, the gunmen could do whatever the hell they wanted for all that time and then just walk away. That sounds like the Russian government wasn't interested in actually helping them.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Saturday suggested that terrorists who killed at least 133 people in Friday night’s attack at a Moscow concert hall were helped by someone based in Ukraine, without providing evidence.
Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement in the massacre, for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
“They tried to hide and moved toward Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border,” Putin said in a speech on Russian television Saturday.
The shooting rampage occurred late Friday at the Crocus City Hall theater on the outskirts of Moscow.
“We will stand united against this common enemy international terrorism no matter where it shows its ugly head,” he said.
Ukraine, which has been defending itself from Russia’s full-scale invasion for two years, has repeatedly denied any links to the attackers, with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry labeling Moscow’s accusations as a Kremlin attempt to mobilize Russian citizens against Ukraine and to try to distance the international community from Kyiv.
The original article contains 337 words, the summary contains 170 words. Saved 50%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
You mean the exact same warning that Blinken is now trying to deny that they had knowledge of? In the same way that Biden threatened the Nordstrearm 2 pipeline a few weeks before it was bombed? The US is a terrorist Nation that has always projected what they were about to do
Wouldnt be the first time the US staged events to trigger larger scale war. Remember when the US planned Operations to bomb civilian areas of Miami to blame Cuba in Operation Northwoods. Lied about WMD to invade other countries?