Moscow Concert Hall, Russia’s Deadliest Attack in Decades

Putin and Russia were distracted by the war in Ukraine, and silencing dissidents for Putin's reelection, investing all their assets ($1,26B) in the military, police and disinformation campaigns.

Even when warned by U.S. intelligence, Putin misinterpreted the warning as disinformation, and instead of tracking Islamic extremists he used his police to track dissidents, journalists, gay people, etc.

Putin will use this tragedy to recruit for the war in Ukraine claiming ISIS & Tajiks executed this terrorist event but that Ukraine planned it, and the US is covering it up.

Putin did this before claiming Moscow apartment attacks were Chechnyan terrorists, who are also Muslim, and then leveled Grozny bringing him into power from being KGB-FSB. 

More than likely Putin will do the same in Ukraine with even more vicious attacks, and perhaps even tactical nukes he has already moved into Belarus last summer.

Meanwhile the MAGA House Republicans dither and do nothing on military aid to Ukraine.

"President Vladimir Putin on Monday night said for the first time that "radical Islamists" were behind Friday's attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, but otherwise doubled down on his previous claim that Ukraine may have somehow been involved and suggested that Washington was allegedly trying to cover it up."

"The damage done to Russia by Putin’s war and the standoff with the west, in terms of lives, treasure and reputation, is incalculable. Yet it’s his abiding obsession. Everything he thinks and does appears related to it."

"Putin is vulnerable. He should have seen the terrorists’ attack coming. But arrogance and complacency blinded him. When the US generously shared an explicit heads-up about an imminent plot, he dismissed it as a disinformation ploy. When the security services should have been tracking Islamist militants, they were harassing opponents, journalists and gay people on his orders"

"The Kremlin is estimated to have spent more than £1bn on “information management”, meaning lies and propaganda, to ensure Putin’s recent presidential election “victory”. In addition, there was a reported 20-fold increase in state spending on internet and media. All this had a single aim: to portray Putin as an invincible, indispensable modern-day tsar who bravely protects Mother Russia from her enemies."

"Even in a society as tied down as Russia’s, this lethally negligent failure will not be forgotten or forgiven."

"That’s on Putin. And it points to another fundamental weakness in his personal and political position: he is so out of touch, so isolated from day-to-day Russian realities, that he believes his own mendacious narratives. Despite explicit videos published online by Islamic State, which has admitted that it undertook the attack, Putin persists in blaming Ukrainian “Nazis”. This is beyond cynical. It’s borderline psychotic."

"Most Russians, understandably, do not share Putin’s obsession. Instead they see, with growing clarity, the harm his war does to their families, their living standards, their shrinking freedoms, their personal safety. Regime-manipulated polls are misleading. Many Russians want it to end. Their silence is not consent, nor does it signify approval. It is rooted in fear."

"President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that his deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, something he confirmed for the first time had already happened, was a reminder to the West that it could not inflict a strategic defeat on Russia."

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-says-russia-positions-nuclear-bombs-belarus-warning-west-2023-06-16/

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/03/25/concert-hall-attack-dents-putins-tough-image-he-tries-use-it-rally-support-ukraine-war.html

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/25/putin-failure-moscow-attack-weaker-than-ever

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/03/25/putin-says-radical-islamists-behind-moscow-concert-attack-a84625

Putin Says 'Radical Islamists' Behind Moscow Concert Attack - The Moscow Times

President Vladimir Putin on Monday night said for the first time that "radical Islamists" were behi...

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/03/25/putin-says-radical-islamists-behind-moscow-concert-attack-a84625

This attack was horrifying and I'm sad that the people of the Moscow area are hurting. I hope their newly re-"elected" leader can do a better job of keeping them safe in Russia.

@Causes, when I first joined this platform had several newsworthy daily posts for citizens to comment upon & connect with their representatives. Currently, we get recycled threads, ads, and no editing tools. The original platform was brilliant. The current one is broken. 

I'm asking you to fix it, please. 

Russia's involvement in the Afghan & Syrian War, Russian policies in primarily Muslim former Soviet Republics Azerbaijan-Tajikistan-Chechnya, as well as Wagner operations in Africa and the Middle East has created strong anti-Russian sentiments which these terrorists personify. 

Russians are also very bigoted against anyone not Christian or white. I remember when I had a trip to Moscow planned just 2 weeks after 9/11 and was trying to decide if it was safe enough to travel. My Russian friends were insistent that I should come as it was safer in Russia because they just shoot people like that (Muslim, brown, etc). While I was there, complete strangers would come up and express sympathy for 9/11 and then tell me about terror attacks in Russia, especially Moscow. We were actually stopped by a police road block coming from the airport as they were searching for terrorists that blew up an apartment building. Apparently it's much more common in Russia since the 1980s but rarely makes the Western press.

 "ISIL’s Afghan branch – also known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K) – has claimed responsibility for the attack and United States officials have confirmed the authenticity of that claim, according to the Reuters news agency."

 "The group remains one of the most active affiliates of ISIL and takes its title from an ancient caliphate in the region that once encompassed areas of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan."

 "The group emerged from eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and was made up of breakaway fighters of the Pakistan Taliban and local fighters who pledged allegiance to the late ISIL leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."

 "The group has since established a fearsome reputation for acts of brutality."

 "Murat Aslan, a military analyst and former Turkish army colonel, said ISIL’s Afghanistan affiliate is known for its “radical and tough methodologies”.

 "First of all, Russia is in Syria and fighting against Daesh [ISIL] like the United States. That means they see such countries as hostile,"

 "Defence and security analysts say the group has targeted its propaganda at Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years over the alleged oppression of Muslims by Russia."

 "“Russia’s engagement in the global fight against ISIS and its affiliates, especially through its military operations in Syria and its efforts to establish connections with the Afghan Taliban – ISIS-K’s rival – marks Russia as a key adversary for ISIS/ISIS-K,” 

 "Kabir Taneja, a fellow at the Strategic Studies Programme of the Observer Research Foundation – a think tank based in New Delhi, India – told Al Jazeera that Russia is seen by ISIL and its affiliates as “a crusading power against Muslims”.

 "“The most compelling current motivation for ISIS-K to attack Russia is the Taliban factor. The Taliban is a bitter rival of ISIS, and ISIS views Russia as a friend of the Taliban"

 "key role that ISIL recruits of Central Asian origin – particularly Tajiks – played when the group held territory in Syria. They have now returned to the Central Asia region and their intent to carry out attacks has now materialised in capability,"

 "In 2002, Chechen fighters took more than 900 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, the Dubrovka, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and an end to Russia’s war on the region."

 "Russian special forces attacked the theatre to end the standoff and 130 people were killed, most suffocated by a gas used by security forces to leave the Chechen fighters unconscious."

 "The deadliest attack in Russia was the 2004 Beslan school siege which was carried out by members of a Chechen armed group seeking Chechnya’s independence from Russia. The siege killed 334 people, including 186 children."

 https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2024/3/23/moscow-concert-hall-attack-why-is-isil-targeting

Moscow concert hall attack: Why is ISIL targeting Russia?

Deadly attack in Moscow claimed by ISIL affiliate leaves more than 133 people dead and approximatel...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/23/moscow-concert-hall-attack-why-is-isil-targeting

Agree with Iarubia-the platform doesn't carry most current issues to read about and comment on.

Re. Attack on Russian concert hall.  I extend sympathy for the victims and survivors of this attack.  However, I don't understand why Putin refuses to put the blame on ISIS rather than Ukraine, especially since ISIS has claimed responsibility.