The horrific attack on the concert hall “Crocus City Hall” on Friday 22nd March 2024 has rightly disgusted most reasonable people, regardless of their nationality. Chilling scenes of terrorists ruthlessly murdering unarmed civilians in the corridors, and concert hall of one of Moscow’s largest shopping and entertainment centers have been seen around the world. With, at the time of writing, at least 139 dead and hundreds more wounded, over 150 in critical care, the horrendous toll is only likely to rise further.
The initial reactions from most governments have been of horror, condemnation, and sympathy, even Georgia, however, not so in terms of NATO, where reaction has been varied, to say the least, let alone Ukraine. Let us start with the reaction by the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky made the following odious statement in a video announcement.
It should be noted, that nationalist Ukrainian citizens have been celebrating the deaths of Russian civilians, in a disgusting display of racism not seen since their ancestors supported Hitler. One Ukrainian bar, Ofenziva, has even added a meal to its menu celebrating the attack. It should be noted they also did this after the assassination of Dugin’s daughter.
It is also revealing that the gunmen were apprehended within 100km of the Ukrainian border after escaping from the site of the massacre. The Russian government claims it has solid evidence that the terrorists were in contact with someone in authority who would ensure there was a window of opportunity to cross the border if they made it that far.
Meanwhile, Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister simply tweeted “Let’s not lose focus” which shows his contempt for the victims no end. This inhuman response is common across the Baltic republics from those in positions of authority, who have even disrupted attempts by citizens to express their condolences at the local Russian embassies.
The United States, on the other hand, made a mealy-mouthed statement of “condolences” but also, while the attack was in progress, denied any link to Ukraine, and then blamed ISIS* (more on that later) which is most interesting.
It must be noted, given that, after two years, they still can’t identify the culprits of the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines. And was not ISIS*, the so-called Islamic State a US-CIA creation and that is old news. Such a rapid apportionment of blame or admission of guilt is especially suspicious given that on March 7th the US embassy in Moscow, and those of several of its puppets, issued warnings about potential terrorist attacks in Moscow, and recommended their citizens to avoid places such as concert halls.
The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.
What did they know, and when?
While there is some superficial evidence which points towards ISIS* affiliation of the gunmen, firstly they are all Muslims, as well as their posing in front of an ISIS* flag; there are several things that do not gel here. Firstly, the picture of them in front of the notorious Islamist flag shows them raising their fingers in the ISIS* salute using their LEFT hands, which, as anyone with an ounce of knowledge of Islamic extremists, knows is haram!
Secondly, they have already, under interrogation after their capture by Russian security forces, admitted to making the attack for money, and the fact that they did not make any political demands (a key ISIS* trademark) or maximize casualties in a suicide attack (another ISIS* trademark) but instead fled the scene in order to receive the remainder of their payment (definitely NOT and ISIS* trademark) makes it likely that any evidence pointing to ISIS* is a red herring, intended only to give plausible deniability.
It is also interesting, and rather sinister, that a mere matter of months ago, the Ukrainian embassy was recruiting mercenaries in Tajikistan for its International Legion, while there have been large numbers of ISIS* affiliates fighting for the Ukrainians against Russia since at least 2022.
But even more sinister is the history of ISIS*, which was founded in 2004 in Iraq as ISI, but really only came to prominence when, in 2014, it captured large areas of Iraq, just in time to reverse the pullout of US troops that the Iraqi government had demanded the US pull out of the country. Renamed ISIS* when it subsequently overran large areas of Syria during the early part of the Syrian civil war, it was covertly treated as an ally by the US and its Western partners in their attempts to isolate Syria and then overthrow Assad.
It is also interesting to note that operations by the Russian armed forces in support of the Syrian government have been far more effective at destroying ISIS* than any undertaken by the US and its allies.
Both the US and UK have a history of cooping terrorist groups as part of their divide and rule approach to “imperial control” and it is increasingly likely that this attack may have been orchestrated by some in Ukraine, with western backing from the CIA and MI6.
Now, Let’s LOOK who benefits?
The current line from Ukraine and its supporters in the west is that Russia stands to benefit from a false flag operation by increasing the rate of volunteers for the special military operation in Ukraine, increasing public support for Putin and the SMO, and unifying Russian society.
There is a problem with all three claims. Firstly, Putin just won a landslide victory in the Russian presidential election, and is, according to even pro-western sources like Levada, benefitting from popularity ratings with the Russian public that western leaders can only dream of. The same can be said for recruitment, with over 10,000 volunteers signing up each month.
It would seem that Russian society is already quite well unified and supportive of both Putin and the SMO, which rather undermines the Ukrainian (and western) claims.
On the other hand, Ukraine, and its backers, are losing the war, and losing it badly.
Lock and Load Another Round!
So this leaves us to try to make sense out of the madness, and in spite of a concerted effort to deflect blame, especially from Ukraine, much of what has transpired in terms of terrorists’ attacks leads back to the US State Department and its warmongering Spin Doctors, John Kirby for one, and despite the fact that the gunmen were Islamists, it is starting to appear that it wasn’t ISIS* at all.
The only thing that we can say for sure is that the terrorists’ shooters, at least four, are useful idiots. They could just have blown themselves up when they ran out of ammunition. It cannot even be passed off as a convincing false flag.
Meanwhile, too many factors point towards Ukraine, raising the possibility that someone is trying to frame Ukraine, such as the gunmen attempting to escape there. These were low – intellect gunmen killing for money alone, low-level Manchurian Candidates, who allowed themselves to get caught so easily, taken alive and then squeal like stuck pigs.
I, personally, believe they were not meant to even survive the attack, much less make it to freedom. They were decoys for something BIGGER to come.
I’ve long suspected that the end of the American-Ukrainian experiment will be America in isolation. Or quarantine, if you prefer. Even if the US didn’t have anything to do with this directly, the fact that American spooks and policymakers can so plausibly be blamed is in itself a serious problem
The Usual Suspects
In the blame-game, the usual suspects are the same as always, proxy or not – and time will soon show what is what and where the buck stops. I just wonder if we will find a Georgian Legion connection in the recruitment of the trigger men, as the CIA does not directly do the dirty work themselves.
Moscow has its conclusion, only know who ordered the terror attack?
Nothing can surprise me at this stage, especially in a US election year, and perhaps this act may be a windfall for Joe Biden as this may be enough to justify the US administration in completely distancing itself from the neo-Nazi Ukrainian regime. This would fit in with the US track record of running from its failures, and leaving its allies to pick up the pieces, while showing Russia what it can do in Central Asia.
It is too late for any good outcome for US policy in Ukraine, and this gives the US an opportunity to drop them like a hot potato, despite their claims of “No possibility of Ukrainian involvement”
But as demonstrated so many times, for the deflectors of truth: Mission Accomplished and DON’T look back.
*-is banned in Russia
Seth Ferris, investigative journalist and political scientist, expert on Middle Eastern affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
