Would Russia willingly allow an operation to kill so many precious innocent civilians in some false flag attempt? Who benefits from this attack and loss of life there? For it to have been Russia itself behind it, what is Russia today better positioned to do than they were before this attack? Anything?
It doesn’t feel like the old ISIS but is ISIS still the same rough and tumble band of ideological killers that they were before? They’ve been relatively quiet internationally, lately.
Yes. Yes they would.
"Who benefits from this attack and loss of life there?"
Putin would use this to enact further crackdowns and power consolidation as he had with previous attacks such as Beslan.
"For it to have been Russia itself behind it, what is Russia today better positioned to do than they were before this attack? Anything?"
Use it as another propaganda coup to pit the west against each other like they have done before. Need proof? Look at what the resident Vatniks have been posting blaming the U.S. and the west for the attack.
Yes they would. They have a record of doing that.
And it is difficult to understand why it took the police more than an hour to respond when they are right across the street from the concert hall.