The recent horrific terrorist attack on Moscow's Crocus City Mall had a striking resemblance to the 1999 apartment building bombings in Russia.
Chechen rebels were accused of those bombings in Russia in 1999. However, despite numerous clues and missteps by authorities at the time, various pieces of evidence indicated that the Chechens were falsely accused and that it was an inside job carried out by the authorities.
Those 1999 apartment building bombings in Russia and Moscow enabled Vladimir Putin to consolidate the Russian population in fear and despair and to rise as a benefactor of all Russians and lead them to war against the Republic of Chechnya, which had been trying to break away from Russian Federation and proclaim independence.
Recent mass shootings during the concert at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, when many people were killed, are just too identical to the 1999 apartment building explosions.
This mass shooting seems to have been carried out by multiple armed and well-prepared men who made no requests or addressed Russian authorities but instead killed people in cold blood.
Then it turned out that those people were just randomly picked recently hired people from Tajikistan, some of whom had considered being taxi drivers.
These people were not professionals. One of them displayed severe characteristics of a drug addiction.
No one responded in time
Russian special forces and police did not arrive on time. The Moscow regional government building is a short walk from Crocus City Mall, and there are definitely armed people there, but help did not arrive.
Firefighting vehicles were late and did not start the fire extinguishing procedures on time.
The owner of Crocus City Mall, the notorious real estate mogul who was a part of the 2016 election meddling story, Aras Agalarov, is not a Western type of self-made man but an ethnic Azerbaijani mobster from the Russian 1990s.
He could have easily arranged and dispatched a special militant group to Crocus City Mall, given that his other facilities are in that part of Moscow suburb and he most definitely has a local private security company as all Russian major companies do, particularly those with significant physical assets. This is a luxurious area in the Moscow region.
Who in the world, after killing around 150 people and exposing their car, would then drive it hundreds of miles to the Ukrainian border?
Moscow has millions of cameras placed every 50 meters apart.
In the part of the city where the terrorist attack took place, in addition to government cameras, there are private ones, and given that there is a government facility nearby, there are most definitely cameras monitored by intelligence services.
Who in the world, after killing around 150 people and exposing their car, would then drive it hundreds of miles to the Ukrainian border? The terrorists had access to social media and the Internet, and they knew that their car was exposed.
Plan for a new mobilisation of Russia
It all looks like 1999 again. Vladimir Putin once again needs the Russian people’s blank card.
In 1999, he needed the support of the Russian people to engage in a war against the Chechen Republic. This time, he needs more support from the masses for a war he has been waging against Ukraine.
It was not a coincidence that the vehicle which terrorists used trying to escape was heading for Ukraine.
This was definitely a plan of those who wanted to mobilise Russia, to gear up Moscow and place the country on more militant rails.
Moscow and all other major Russian cities were spared from mobilisation and other war-related events, which had been the standard for individuals living in Russia's remote regions for the entire 2-year conflict.
Putin wants Moscow and other large Russian cities to wilfully or forcefully contribute to the unjust war he started in 2022
Vladimir Putin wants Moscow and other large Russian cities to wilfully or forcefully contribute to the unjust war he started in 2022.
The method of “recruiting” people in Moscow was the same as in 1999. Mass fear has always helped Vladimir Putin. He is convinced that it would help him now as well.
The timing was perfect. The election is over. Vladimir Putin has constitutional powers for another 6 years. The people of Russia and Moscow will definitely understand forthcoming mobilisation, a tax increase, and declining living standards.
Vladimir Putin needs to act fast while MAGA Republicans are still able to block Ukrainian aid in the US Congress.
In a public appearance, something which Vladimir Putin does not regularly do, he mentioned Ukraine and even made a comparison with the Nazis.
“We all need to contribute to our victory” - various Kremlin’s mouthpieces will now be proclaiming. “Those terrorists”, and especially those who sent them, have no hearts or souls for attacking peaceful civilians who came to a concert” – will now be the agenda of Russian propaganda.
The world should not be shocked
Vladimir Putin never comes up with something new and original. He always sticks to what has worked for him in the past.
This is why he never changes key people; he only rotates them occasionally. He always used corruption as a crucial method to control the elites, and he once again used terror to control and recruit the masses.
Even though there were too many very suspicious elements in terrorist attacks in 1999, the world dismissed the claim that the Russian government could have done it just to boost the electoral prospects of Vladimir Putin, even though he was not yet a rising star in Russian politics.
Mass killings of civilians with very graphic scenes have an impact on the people that the Kremlin needs to control and live in fear
Now, after the world has seen what Russia can and is willing to do in Ukraine, something very similar to what Russia had been pursuing in Chechnya in 1999, the world should not be shocked.
The terrorist attack in the Moscow concert hall should be viewed from the perspective that the Kremlin authorised one of the directorates within any of the Russian intelligence services, most probably the FSB, to facilitate this horrific attack using the people from Tajikistan in order to make people of Russia and especially Moscow to really feel the consequences of the war waged far away.
This style of the 2024 terrorist attack is very much the same as in 1999. Mass killings of civilians with very graphic scenes have an impact on the people that the Kremlin needs to control and live in fear.
Russian people do not want to be free, but they want to be safe, secure and comfortable. The more Russian people know that the Kremlin is a clear and present danger to them, the more vulnerable Putin's regime will be.
