This is false. The alleged ISIS announcement has already been identified as a fake. However it should be noted that this narrative was put out in a coordinated fashion by western media almost immediately after the attack in order to get ahead of the story.
So far what is known is:
the terrorists claim they were offered a substantial amount of money for the attack through a Telegram contact
the terrorists claim they were provided with weapons through a cache set up by a well organized network
the terrorists do not claim affiliation with ISIS
the terrorists were apprehended while frantically trying to reach the Ukrainian border
The fact pattern does not fit the MO of ISIS, this was not a suicide attack, it was meticulously planned and organized by a professional agency with substantial resources complete with a getaway plan for the terrorists.
I don't want to say anything more than this for now because this is not the time for speculation, we have to wait for all the facts. We will learn more in the coming days and weeks.
My deepest condolences to those affected by this heinous crime.
The fact pattern does not fit the MO of ISIS, this was not a suicide attack, it was meticulously planned and organized by a professional agency with substantial resources complete with a getaway plan for the terrorists.
I'm not sure how you've come to this conclusion since ISIS have previously carried out non-suicide attacks before in this same manner - like the Bataclan theater in Paris, back in 2015.
The Afghan arm of ISIL/ISIS – known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province or ISIS-K – has claimed responsibility for the attack via the Telegram channel of Amaq, a media outlet affiliated with the group.
I don't buy it. It's not the first time they've claimed responsibility for attacks they had nothing to do with. Al Jazeera needs to stop feeding into this narrative that the West is trying to get its proxies to construct in an attempt to obfuscate the real culprit.
This is false. The alleged ISIS announcement has already been identified as a fake.
The only evidence I've seen of anyone proposing why it's fake is based on a telegram post that focused on fairly subjective counterarguments.
the terrorists claim they were offered a substantial amount of money for the attack through a Telegram contact
the terrorists claim they were provided with weapons through a cache set up by a well organized network
the terrorists do not claim affiliation with ISIS
They confessed that a "priest" contacted them while he was learning from religious education videos online. This is entirely within the MO of Isis for recruiting. Also, they weren't really offered a bunch in compensation, if I recall correctly they were promised a million ruble, which is only a little over 10k USD.
the terrorists were apprehended while frantically trying to reach the Ukrainian border
I mean, is there really another border that's closer and as porous? The only other legitimate option would have been Kazakhstan or maybe Georgia.
The fact pattern does not fit the MO of ISIS, this was not a suicide attack
It's actually pretty rare to see suicide vest attacks outside of the middle east. High explosive material is a lot harder to come by and transport outside of the region, and you don't really want to be caught with one while you're on route. Plus within these organizations, they typically only have a couple people whom actually know how to build them without blowing themselves up.
Having a contact already in Moscow purchase a few black market rifles doesn't require substantial logistics. And from the videos I've seen from the scene, things were a madhouse, and security forces were scarce. It appears as if they just got back into a car and started driving. Not exactly a grand escape.
I don't really have a hard time believing this was a legitimate attack from Isis. The Russian security apparatus is already busy, and has less eyes on their prior spheres of engagement. It's not like Isis doesn't have or hold a grudge against Russia, theyve been battling them in syria for years now.
As i said, i don't buy it. And regardless of what we think, the only thing that matters is what the Russians think, and they aren't buying it either, neither it seems are the Russian media or the official investigators. They will decide which party they hold ultimately responsible and they will deliver an appropriate repsonse to that party in due time. The fact that intermediaries were used to try and insulate the real organizers of the attack from blame may work for escaping legal consequences in international courts, but they will not save them from Russia's retribution. The West can point the finger away from the real perpetrators as much as they want, Russia is not impressed.
This sounds to me like a covert attempt by the US to escalate the situation further by trying to destabilize Russia, an attempt to force their hand, which would create a possible justification to pull more European NATO troops (French, presumably?) into Ukraine. And I word it this way because NATO soldiers are already present in Ukraine.
Considering the fact that the absolute ghoul Lindsey Graham visited Kiev recently, and also the fact that he and other US representatives called upon Kiev to up the people-snatching efforts, urging the fascist junta to speed up mobilization law adoption – this looks to me like the US is worried that the AFU is heading towards collapse, and that they believe it could happen sooner than they would want, thus endangering the upcoming presidential elections, and the only way they could postpone this is to get Europe involved. By the way, we have several videos circulating the Internet – one is from Romania, and there are dozens of tanks and other heavy machinery that are presumably being moved to the Ukrainian border. Some of these tanks are American. Not to mention the fact that the US embassy issued a warning, urging American citizens to refrain from spending time in crowded places, and the ass-toad-in-chief Vicky Nuland blabbering about "nasty surprises".
There are certain things that do not make sense to me. Firstly, Russian sources claim that this was a carefully planned operation. Which isn’t hard to believe – we’re talking getting into Moscow (heavily armed with military-grade assault rifles, flammable liquid, perhaps even explosive devices), getting past security, staying there unnoticed until the right moment (and that’s amid the warnings that the US embassy issued to American citizens), killing a whole bunch of people in cold blood, burning the place down, and getting out successfully. All of which these pieces-of-shit-dogs, whoever they are, succeeded at doing, by the way.
And then we get videos, published by Russian law enforcement operatives – we see a stuttering mess of a terrorist, trembling like hell and barely standing on his knees, saying he was promised a “hefty” pay of around half a million, up to 1M rubles (which is around 7-8K USD, if I remember correctly) by some (allegedly) unknown person who contacted him over Telegram. This is the same person, apparently, who hours ago slaughtered innocent people like it was child play.
It looks very much like the operation you could expect Ukrainian Nazi terrorists like Budanov would conduct. Also – there’s the fact that the men were supposedly trying to reach the border with Ukraine near Belgorod (which is strange, given the fact that there are still border clashes going on AFAIK, RU military/security services presence is guaranteed – why go there? You’ll almost certainly get caught). But aside from the obvious bloodthirst of the fascists in Kiev - do they really not have any sense of self-preservation?
This alone doesn’t mean, however, that Ukraine was behind the attack – rather Ukraine was an obvious escape route, since it is the closest ally and US/CIA puppet, a destination point you take off to if you wanted to escape Russia quickly. Which brings another question to mind – why escape? If the operation is indeed carefully planned, would it not be easier to hide inside Russia, or at least cross the border later, elsewhere, and not in a haphazard way, on the same fucking car you supposedly came to Crocus in the first place?
But there's also western media outlets who, one after the other, starting to parrot claims of "ISIS taking responsibility", which sounds like a very obvious attempt at deflecting blame from Ukraine.
Adding to the picture, there’s been a statement by Dmitry Peskov not long before the terrorist attack, who stated that “we cannot allow a hostile state, hellbent on taking Crimea, the Donbas and other new territories, to exist”, or something of that ilk. Which is an ambiguous statement, as it could be interpreted in at least two ways – either this Ukrainian state is transformed, all this bullshit about NATO and taking Crimea etc. wiped off from the Constitution (which would probably necessitate a regime change, which would be very based), or this Ukrainian state is to be dismantled altogether. IDK, maybe the US monsters are starting to realize that Russia is getting tired of playing with the Nazis, and the only way to buy time is to escalate further.
supposedly trying to reach the border with Ukraine near Belgorod [...] why go there? You’ll almost certainly get caught
Russia is a big country where you can potentially stand a chance of evading capture at least for a while. Its border with Ukraine is also quite long, and that border is more porous than you think. It is not impossible for a handful of men to manage to cross it unnoticed through some of the more wooded areas.
saying he was promised a “hefty” pay of around half a million, up to 1M rubles [...] by some (allegedly) unknown person who contacted him over Telegram
Terrorists lie. Don't take anything they say at face value. The terrorist who assassinated journalist Vladlen Tatarsky also initially tried to lie and claim less knowledge and involvement in the plot than she actually had. The trial eventually revealed otherwise. This is why i always say, wait and see. Don't jump to conclusions based on preliminary reports.
Its border with Ukraine is also quite long, and that border is more porous than you think. It is not impossible for a handful of men to manage to cross it unnoticed through some of the more wooded areas.
I mean, yeah... Still, there was a freaking car chase! You would expect a certain level of stealth from these motherfuckers. The car was tracked with cameras and drones. Whatever they were trying to do - I'd bet on the Russians capturing them asap.
Terrorists lie. Don’t take anything they say at face value.
Absolutely, agree. It's just that... I just expected a cold stone-face motherfucker, not someone in complete disarray
I don't think it could be anyone but Ukraine. This was too sloppy an attack to be directly perpetuated by a major superpower and it's far too destructive and ambitious for a branch of ISIS.
And of fucking course none of the western involvement will be made public, unless the West makes it public. Gonna make it too hard to get some sort of deal some of the Kremlin libs are still hoping for, won't it. The worst CIA American diplomats in Russia will get is another rude comment by Medvedev on Twatter and Telegram.
The kinds of statements that people like Maria Zakharova and Margarita Simonyan (editor of RT) have been making recently do indicate that they are ultimately pointing fingers toward the West. But international diplomacy is a delicate business and political considerations have to be taken into account. It is rare that the Russian government makes direct official accusations, and for good reason: they want to leave the door open to negotiations, that's not a lib thing it's just what you do in geopolitics.
There is no agreement NATO countries don't break and I sure shit won't root for economic integration back with Europe. There should be no door for negotiations with terrorists. And these are fucking terrorist states.
Especially no negotiations about nukes. Let them shit themselves in the night over uncontrolled Russian nukes, I don't give a fuck.