Yesterday, three days after the Friday evening attack carried out by the Islamic State Vladimir Putin he once again addressed the Russian people and the international community, admitting that the attack on Crocus City Hall was perpetrated by “Islamic extremists.” However, at the same time he relaunched doubts and suspicions on Kiev, stating that “it will be the task of the investigation to establish who instigated this atrocious event”. During a meeting with his advisors to discuss the measures to be adopted following the attack which caused the death of 139 people and around a hundred injured still hospitalized, the president underlined the need to answer the question «why the terrorists were trying to head to Ukraine and who was waiting for them there.” Not even time to register the news that the Russian disinformation machine has gone into action: This morning Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council and very loyal to President Putin, said “Ukraine is obviously behind the attack” on Friday on Crocus Hall in Moscow, where at least 139 people died. The Shot channel published the video in which a journalist asks Patrushev: «Isis or Ukraine?» as it passed quickly. “Of course Ukraine,” Patrushev replied. Shortly before, the director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, accused Ukraine's secret services of having contributed to the terrorist attack in Moscow. He claimed that the Crocus City Hall attackers “were trained by Kiev in the Middle East” and threatened reprisals in turn. But not only that, he said: «The preliminary results of the investigation indicate an involvement of the USA and Great Britain in the attack on Moscow». Evidence? Obviously none. A falsehood that Putin and his collaborators reiterate for two reasons: by placing the blame on the Ukrainians too, they can have their hands free for a devastating retaliation against Kiev and in this sense it will be enough for them to make a few fake videos to say “they acted in agreement with Kiev” Russians now drink it all, suffocated by the cloak of regime propaganda, without forgetting that there are no free media or spaces to discuss. This is Russia today. Furthermore, continuing to point the finger at the Ukrainians serves Putin to hide the failure of the Russian security apparatus and in this sense it is clear that there has been a serious lack of coordination and a sensational delay in the response, with tragic consequences: most of the victim was not killed directly by the terrorists, but died due to the terrible fire that was generated. It is certainly not the first time that the Russian services and police grappling with enormous problems of corruption, disorganization and alcoholism have failed, however, the narrative of the Kremlin and its sympathizers tells of an unsurpassable security system which, as seen in the last two years it is not. Putin described the attack as “an act of intimidation against Russia” and raised questions about the motivations of those who benefit from it. He also accused the United States “of trying to convince everyone that Kiev was not involved in the massacre.” Consequently, he ordered his collaborators to constantly inform him of the progress of the investigations both on the arrested terrorists and on their alleged “instigators”. In reality it is an attack conceived and planned by the Islamic State, using ISIS-Korasan, the so-called ISIS-K. This is not the first time that ISIS has struck Russia. In the last ten years there have been at least seven attacks, in Moscow and other republics, two attempts to assassinate Putin, one of which in February 2022: on one occasion all the streets in the capital were blocked without it being officially explained what it had happened, but in reality an attack on the head of the Kremlin was underway. And the operations of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) against the Islamic State and against the Caucasus Emirate can no longer be counted (there must have been more than 50). The war in Ukraine was the occasion for the return of jihadism to the country. But it was obvious: when you start a war you must always consider that internal fronts can open up, previously managed by bloodily repressing the protests. But if you are busy elsewhere, you end up having a harder time dealing with all the emergencies. Furthermore, we cannot forget that Putin is one of the people most hated by Islamists, for the repression in Chechnya, for what Russia has done and is doing in Syria, for his choice to side with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, enemies deadly members of the Islamic State. ISIS attempted to enter the Gaza Strip and Hamas prevented it, it carried out some attacks in Israel which were not at all appreciated by the Palestinian organisation. Putin, however, has invited Hamas to Moscow and does business with Shiite Iran. All elements that make the Islamic State furious as it chose to attack the Russian president at a time when he felt strong after his re-election. As we write, new threats to Russia have appeared on jihadist channels and in particular there is talk of the arrested men who were tortured by the Russians:
Including Putin
Danger
Howl at the savage Russians!
Stop torturing Islamic State prisoners.
Attention! Do not think that we do not have the opportunity to take revenge on you for our captured brothers. In Friday's attack we showed you that, God willing, the Islamic State Mujahideen can punish you for any of your horrors; without this revenge, much blood will remain of the Islamic Ummah.
Torturing the mujahideen captured in your name and publishing their videos increases your bloodlust for thousands of their brothers. This time let us hit you on the head so that future generations, God willing, remember you and these pains and wounds of the past are forgotten.
YES! Very heavy, deadly, bloody, stabbing, burning
and devastating blows. Wait!
Don't expect a massacre, God willing.
Very soon, God willing.
The Islamic State took advantage of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine to regroup and today controls entire areas between Syria and Iraq. In Africa it controls areas in Mali and Burkina Faso, it attacks in Nigeria and Somalia, as well as in Mozambique, where there is a frightening situation. What is worrying is the capability of ISIS-K. Which also threatens Europe, because many of its members have also arrived here, especially in France. The objectives are the European football championships and the Olympics. Let us prepare for a season in which terrorism will increasingly worry the international community. If the Islamic State fell from a territorial point of view, the ideology of the global Caliphate has never waned. Now the question is: what will the Islamic State and its offshoot Isis Khorasan do now that the Russians treat them like vulgar mercenaries of Kiev and the West? We will know very soon.
