At least 18 killed, 43 wounded after terrorists attack at concert hall in Moscow | Hacker News Reader

At least 18 killed, 43 wounded after terrorists attack at concert hall in Moscow

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42 pointswslh23 comments

FSB trying to stir up the public opinion in Russia again. Last time they did this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Russian_apartment_bombing... In the aftermath Russia started the second war in Chechia. This time they are probably preparing the country for another mobilization against Ukraine. They already started to tell the russian public that they are at war: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-russia-is-...

> FSB trying to stir up the public opinion in Russia again.

Wait. Islamic terrorists are now saying they did that attack in Russia on "christians".

Are you saying that FSB members dressed as islamic terrorists and attacked their own people, all the while getting islamic terrorists to revendicate the attack?

What about the attack by islamic terrorists in France, in Paris, at the Bataclan: where hundreds of civilians were executed. Was it a coup by the french secret service to stir up public opinion in France?

Or, maybe, can we accept that islamic terrorism is a thing?

„ A terrible terrorist attack. After the last terrible terrorist attack "Nord-Ost" we won in Chechnya. We are ready to win again.

Let's give the civilian population of Ukraine 48 hours to leave the cities, and finally end this war with a victorious defeat of the enemy. Using all forces and means.“

See https://t.me/kvmalofeev/2577, telegram channel of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Malofeev

It's still early. Let's wait and see who officials attribute this attack to in a few days. If they say it was Islamists, there's virtually zero chance that it was a false flag because that wouldn't help Putin.

It could be, of course, good old IS. But the FSB is widely thought to have organized a series of terror bombings in Russia against residential buildings, pretending to be Chechens, for a casus belli against Chechnya: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Russian_apartment_bombi...

I mean, the FSB operatives were arrested by the police, with a bomb, in a residential building, only to then be released and claiming it was a drill. While the Chechens were supposedly conducting a real terror operation, which by the way they never claimed. That was, by the way, the first Big Moment of Vladimir Putin.

So it's speculative right now, but totally reasonable to consider it was all done by the Russians.

>widely thought

I would say this is an appeal to majority logical fallacy, but can we even quantify how many people actually believe in this, who have heard of this relatively obscure war in the first place?

Even at-the-time US Deputy Secretary of State called this a conspiracy theory.

Plus, I doubt you could bring about so many people who would be willing to blow up their countrymen so that they can fake an attack by some enemy and consolidate power for some up-and-coming politician. You would have to collect dozens of pure psychopaths to do that and all of them to remain quiet in the aftermath of the incident. With all that being said, it just doesn't seem very likely. That, or I'm being very naive, but I like to believe the former - not likely.

Still, I am not too familiar with this incident and the wars themselves. You seem to know more about this, so do you perhaps have some book recommendations?

I guess you aren't too familiar with the context. The Chechens wars were major post-USSR wars fought by Russia, extremely bloody and violent, and an awkward point in Russia's self image as a major power. In the first Chechen war, the tiny, remote breakaway region declared, and maintained on battlefield, it's independence from Mighty Russia. The Second installment undid that, and was what you would consider the first major popularity booster for Putin - regardless of whether the FSB was bombing its own people. Either way, the stakes were high, these weren't obscure wars.

As for the "pure psychopaths" bit... Russia has a long history of sacrificing its citizens for the Greater Good. The "meat grinder" in Ukraine is one example. Another, quite unambiguous one, is the Dubrovka theatre hostage crisis: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisi... . Terrorists (Chechen actually, though there is speculation, again, about FSB involvement) took a whole Moscow theatre hostage. The anti terrorist units attacked, killing all 40 terrorists but also over 120 of the hostages. A combat gas was injected into the theatre, which incapacitated the terrorists and allowed an armed attack, but also killed lots of the bystanders.

As for books, I can't recommend any "latest history" books on Russia, but you could do a lot worse than "Red Notice" by Bill Browder for general context. It's a great book, about a Western (American?) guy who goes to Russia in the 90s, sets up an activist hedge fund, and makes a killing. All was well so long as he was useful to the government, but when their paths diverged, all got rather messy.

Alright, thanks

> another mobilization against Ukraine

I doubt Ukraine has a significant Muslim population, so it would be hard to mobilize against Ukraine based on an attack by ISIS.

The president of Ukraine is a jew. But that doesn’t stop the russian government from trying to denazify Ukraine.

The russian government at the moment simply doesn’t care about reason. They can’t, because then they would have to admit mistakes, but they are too weak and afraid to do this. So they have to define jews as nazis, muslims as ukrainians and war as peace.

Two weeks ago the US gov warned about this https://ru.usembassy.gov/security-alert-avoid-large-gatherin...

That looked more like an announcement, not a warning.

And what are you implying exactly?

Many countries share information they have about imminent terrorist attacks with each other even when they don't have good relations. Russia and the US have done this before.

We never know how is all connected but also China and Russia vetoed an US resolution [1] today. Not saying that there is a connection at all but we are living crazy times and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to understand the complexity and acceleration of events around.

Staying awake for more information.

BTW how many times China and Russia vetoed at the same time resolutions at the UN? Countin that from [2].

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-security-counci...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vetoed_United_Nations_...

> BTW how many times China and Russia vetoed at the same time resolutions at the UN? Countin that from [2].

Not sure what you mean... Should we be surprised? It is normal that whenever something is discussed, usually either China is against, or Russia, or both - and the list you linked to confirms that.

> [The US gov] issued its warning several hours after the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said it had foiled an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by a cell of the militant Sunni Muslim group Islamic State.

That was related to the fake elections in Russia. It was expected that some people would attempt to protest and the police will react violently

Polish news say at least 40 dead, 100 wounded:

https://www.rp.pl/swiat/art40049351-strzelanina-w-sali-konce...

FWIW, according to Estonian news, this is apparently information provided by TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency.

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