The terrorist attack in Moscow that killed more than 130 apparently was the work of ISIS-K, one of several ISIS franchises. That is what our intelligence agencies say, and I have no reason to doubt it. The fact that ISIS was able to upload video footage apparently recorded by the terrorists would appear to confirm that ISIS was responsible. The London Times reports:
A Russian disinformation campaign is attempting to pin the blame for the Islamic State terrorist attack in Moscow on Britain, Ukraine and the United States by publishing fake articles that purport to be from western media outlets.
One of the articles circulated by the Kremlin-run Doppelganger bot network was designed to look as if it had been written by Der Spiegel, the German magazine, according to The Insider, a Russian opposition website.
The fake article claimed that the attack on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, which killed at least 137 people and injured at least 182, was “clearly” organised by “Ukrainians who are trying to destabilise Russia after their military failures”. It also called on the German government to condemn Kyiv over the attack. No such article was published by Der Spiegel.
Western sources are expressing outrage over this Russian disinformation campaign, which also features fake quotes from people like Beyonce, calling on the U.S. government to stop supporting Ukraine.
In comparison with Russia, our government has it easy. There is no need to produce fake articles from respectable journals. Rather, the Democrats issue talking points and the New York Times, the Washington Post and other outlets will actually print them, even though they are wholly false. See: Russia collusion hoax. That is a much better system of disinformation than is available to the Russians.
Given that the attack was carried out by Islamic terrorists, it still has strange elements. The four assassins tried to escape, but apparently had no plausible plan to do so. They were captured and tortured by Russian security forces, which not only did not disguise their brutal treatment of the captives, but published videos of it, including administering electric shocks to one man’s genitals. The four men were visibly damaged when they were arraigned in court, one with an ear sliced off, another unconscious in a wheelchair, all showing injuries.
I assume Russian authorities did this in order to protect their own domestic reputation for toughness. The attack itself was a blow to Putin’s regime, and the perpetrators will pay a heavy price. Having first been tortured, they will be tortured some more and then executed, even though Russian “law” does not provide for the death penalty in this case.
But what did they expect? Obviously, lacking a feasible plan of escape, the four terrorists could look forward to exactly the treatment they have received. Why did they not commit suicide, like so many other Islamic terrorists? One of them was recorded saying that he had been paid something like $10,000 to carry out the attack. That is an absurd claim: no one would be foolish enough to commit such an outrage, and then forfeit his life, for such an amount. So why did the Russians make him say it? It is a little hard to understand the terrorists’ thinking, since what they are getting is exactly what anyone could have told them would be in store.
Finally, I can’t help contrasting Russia’s attitude toward terrorism committed in its country with its attitude toward the vastly greater and more horrific terrorist episode that Gazans inflicted in Israel on October 7:
Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and now deputy head of Russia’s national security council, said: “Terrorists understand only retaliatory terror. No courts or investigations will help if force is not countered by force, and deaths are not countered by total executions of terrorists and repressions against their families.
“Do they have to be killed? They have to be and will be,” he wrote on Monday. His comments were echoed by officials and pro-Kremlin MPs.
That’s what I say, but don’t tell it to the Israelis.
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