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.

  • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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.

        • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          I feel this isn’t a false flag operation because it makes him look bad.

          1. the US warned them about this operation. 2)Putin publicly said that the West was only making up those lies to cause issues within the country.
          2. there did not appear to be clear indication of who committed the attack. A better false flag would have been making it look more like a Ukrainian operation.

          Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks more like Russia got caught with their pants down, with the us pre-emptive rubbing dirt in the wound.

    • no banana@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

    • GBU_28
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      8 months ago

      Wouldn’t potential reprisals happen in Syria?

      • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        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.”

      • barsoap
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        8 months ago

        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?

  • tsonfeir
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • derpgon@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      And most of all, he does not care whether people die if it can fuel a war - where more people WILL die.

      Fuck Putler

      • tsonfeir
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        8 months ago

        I think he wants them to die. He’s making more room in prisons.

    • hannes3120@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      Because Isis being able to attack inside Russia paints him as weak and doesn’t even give the option to retaliate.

      If you spin it so Ukraine is behind it you can at least count on more people supporting the war against them

      • ours@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        He can retaliate in Syria/Iraq. But he wants to keep the focus on Ukraine.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          8 months ago

          If they didn’t attack Kazakhstan when they seized Bikinore then they’re not going to do anything to anybody else. They don’t have the manpower, let alone the equipment.

    • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      ISIS do have a history of just claiming responsibility for any attack regardless if it was actually them or not

      But that’s not to say i think Ukraine did it

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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        8 months ago

        ISIS appear to have obtained footage from the attackers’ body cameras and posted it to Telegram before anybody else.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      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.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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

  • resetbypeer@lemmy.world
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    8 months 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.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      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.

  • recapitated@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Obviously the Ukrainian Islamist Nazis are responsible for Russia ignoring national security intelligence.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Pooty Poot: How can we make our illegal and outrageous war in Ukraine more illegal and outrageous? Aha! I’ve got it!

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    I suppose this will test the “just ignore bullying” thing

    If ISIS is never given the credit they want will they attack again or move on to something else

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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!

    • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      iTs a CoNsPirAcY!

      Seriously though, was that really your default answer?

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      8 months ago

      Go to one of your Tankie instances. The US literally warned them a couple weeks ago.

      • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        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

        • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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          You mean the exact same warning that Blinken is now trying to deny that they had knowledge of?

          Do I have to repeat myself? Stop with the alternate reality clownery and fuck off into your Tankie bubble. The US warned Russia a couple weeks ago, and then again a couple days ago, which Putin himself, personally, called bullshit, dismissing it. And now he tries to blame Ukraine for it.

      • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        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?

        • ours@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          And how is that proof for this attack? You could use the same argument with Putin with his Moscow Apartment Bombings. Those weren’t just some hypothetical plan.

          There is nothing here pointing towards a Russian false flag. It simply seems like ISIS being the horrible terrorist organization it is.

          I have no love for the CIA but why is a self-named anti-colonialist defending an autocratic, imperialistic, murderous, kleptocracy? Capitalism sucks and the USA has all sorts of horrible problems but is really Putin and his thugs really what want to get behind?

          The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.

          • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Point to where I defended anyone. I was pointing out the US has a history of false flags and pointing fingers at other groups as a precursor to a larger event.