LOS ANGELES.–Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Secret Service [FSB] Director Alexander Bornikov said there’s a link between the March 23 ISIS-K terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus Civil Hall theater, mowing down with automatic rifles a 140 innocent concert goers. Putin and his FSB chief were caught flatfooted even though they were warned two weeks earlier by U.S. Moscow embassy that something dangerous could take place. Putin values himself a tough on terrorism especially inside the Russian Federation, promising safety-and-protection from Russia’s enemies. But Putin can’t fathom that the Soviet Union and Russian Federation fought Islamic extremism from the 1980s when Kremlin occupied Kabul for ten years. Putin’s predecessors Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin battled Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, Chechnya and over the Caucus States for years.
Putin likes to think that Russia backs Palestinians somehow giving them cover from other more violent Islamist groups now prevailing in the Mideast. Putin worked feverishly to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] to defend Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Damacus regime. Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden battled the Russian Federation in Syria for nearly eight years, eventually losing to Putin when he decided to defend al-Assad in 2015. Putin bombed and attacked ISIS in Syria to defend al-Assad’s Damacus government against U.S. and Western attacks. Putin gets his paranoid over the March 23 ISIS-K [Khorosan] Moscow massacre from the fact that Western government waged proxy war against al-Assad’s Damascus government. Putin forgot about all the bad will he created with ISIS in Syria and Afghanistan.
Russia arrested four Tajik nationals for the March 23 Crocus theatre massacre, claiming they tried to escape from Moscow through Ukraine. Bealrus President Alexander Lukahenko said the Tajik terrorists couldn’t escape through the closed Belarus border, prompting Putin to think Ukraine opened an escape corridor. Putin admitted that the March 23 massacre was perpetrated by Islamists, mostly likely form Tajikistan. Russia’s FSB chief Alexander Bortmikov said he didn’t believe ISIS-K was capable of such an attack without Western help. But the Kremlin has no proof that ISIS-K did not pull off the attack on its own. ISIS-K has active cells in Russia, much the same way they do in Europe and the U.S. “The Islamists alone were unable to prepare such an act,” Bornikov said. Russia secretary of National Security Nikoai Patrushev said Ukraine helped plan the attack.
Russian citizens only recently got through the last presidential election, with all the protesting corresponding to the unexplained death of 47-year-old jailed dissident Alexi Navalny. Staging an emotional funeral, Navalny was praised as a nation hero for his opposition to Putin’s 22-year-old Kremlin regime. “Overall, there an odd disconnected. The official line, that Ukrainians recruited jihadists is being parroted, but often with little conviction,” Mark Galeotti, head of Mayak Intelligence, professor a University of London, wrote on X. Russian propagandists can’t accept that radical Islam has a problem with Russia since the old days for battling Osama bin Laden to control Afghanistan. Kremlin officials know that Bin Laden was paid by the CIA to battle Kabul’s Soviet government. Russia battled Islamists in Chechnya from 1999 to 2008, making more Islamist enemies.
Putin finds himself trying to convince ordinary Russians that the U.S., Britian and Ukraine were behind the March 23 Crocus Civil Hall Concert hall terror attack. Terrorist watchers know the Crocus terror attacks were text book ISIS-K, the same attack that stuck Paris Bataclan Theater in 2015. Putin walks a fine line supporting Hamas in Gaza, when he knows that radical Islam would have his head if they could get it. Putin sees himself a siding with various radical Sunni and Shiite groups as long as it advances the Kremlin’s agenda. Since the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War, Putin sees his role of de-Nazifying Ukraine, meaning it’s been armed to the teeth by the Biden government, giving Ukraine over $200 billion in military and humanitarian aid. Putin has a low bar to set convincing Russians that Ukraine was involved in the latest Islamist terror attacks in the Crocus theatre.
Putin finds himself in quicksand trying to convince ordinary Russians that Ukraine, U.S. and U.K were involved in the recent ISIS-K terrorist attacks. Any understanding for recent-and-past history with Islamist groups knows that Russia has been battling radical Islam for years, since its time in Afghanistan. Tying the March 23 ISIS-K attack in Moscow to U.S., U.K. or Ukraine is a stretch for the Kremlin, normally skilled at disinformation and propaganda. All evidence points to an ISIS-K attack, most likely for Russia’s ongoing bombing in Syria of the Islamist group’s stronghold in the north. “The version about Ukraine did not look very convincing from the very beginning, and after yesterday’s revelations from Lukashenko, only frankly narrow-minded or completely fearful people can believe in it,” said Abbas Gallyanov, former Putin speechwriter.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
