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NOTICE: Video might be NSFW. Synopsis: Russia 1 (Russian state television) panel discusses the Crocus City Hall attack and shows video of the attack on Russian television. Much of this video has not been shown on any Western media that I've seen. Also, indications that the fire escape doors in the theatre were locked to prevent anyone from escaping the massacre. The anti-Ukraine narrative is a given here.

Synopsis of the key point: Russian FSB (KGB) agents were present at the Crocus City Hall during the terrorist attack. At least two would seem to be positively identified with one FSB agent also involved in the subsequent arrest of one of the terrorists. Possibly multiple FSB agents were present during the attack with some giving directions to civilians that possibly increased the death toll.

The United States, Britain and Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov has told the media. "We believe that this is true. In any case, we are now talking about the factual information we have. This is general information, but they have a long record of this sort," he said after participating in an enlarged meeting of the Prosecutor General's Office board, when asked whether the US, Britain and Ukraine were behind the terrorist attack. Bortnikov believes that Ukraine has been trying to prove it is capable...

... However, Russia experts and a Wagner defector who told the ICC that the Kremlin had ordered "atrocities" in Ukraine have noted several bizarre occurrences on the night of the terror attack. Former GRU Colonel Igor Salikov says that police units supposedly disappeared around the time of the attack, while Vlad's elite forces stationed nearby also failed to show. He claims it all points to a "botched inside job" by the FSB or a poorly executed response by Russian emergency services. Another key detail is the amateur way the four gunmen handled their Kalashnikov machine guns despite ISIS fighters undergoing...

Says a ‘window’ was prepared for them to cross the northern border of Ukraine

Russia has announced the arrest of eleven individuals, including four who are suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting at a concert hall near Moscow, marking the most lethal incident of its kind in the country in two decades. -snip- The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has reported the apprehension of the “four terrorists” as they were allegedly attempting to cross into Ukraine, repeatedly mentioning that the suspects had connections within Ukraine. They are currently being transported to Moscow for further investigation. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, expressed on Telegram that the suspects had intended...

Russian authorities detained 11 people, state media reported Saturday, after gunmen stormed a concert hall in Moscow in a grisly attack that left at least 115 people dead. Russia's Investigative Committee said four of those detained were directly involved in the attack that left the sprawling shopping mall and music venue smoldering with a collapsed roof. Russian agencies appeared to suggest the attack was linked to Ukraine even though the Islamic State group claimed responsibility in a statement. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that that group was responsible for the attack. The...

Gunmen have attacked a concert hall on the fringes of Moscow, killing at least 115 people and wounding 100 more, Russian security services say. -snip- According to an unverified statement online, militant group Islamic State said it was behind the attack. -snip- Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet directly addressed the nation.

U.S. officials say American intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that ISIS was planning an attack in Moscow - but the warnings were dismissed by Russia's President Putin who described them as 'provocative'. A U.S. intelligence official described how American agencies learned how a cell of ISIS based in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow and shared the information with Russian officials. Putin dismissed the alerts as an attempt to intimidate Russians. U.S. officials say that the information was privately shared as recently as three days before gunmen burst into a large concert hall on Friday night,...

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Friday that a shooting and blast targeting a concert hall in the Moscow region will further escalate the conflict in Ukraine. Vucic noted that on March 7, the American Embassy urged citizens not to go shopping in malls in Moscow. “Some other embassies did the same thing later. This means that their services intercepted certain conversations, and they knew this was going to happen. In any case, this is a tragic event that will have incalculable consequences. Some will say they are Islamists, some will say Kyiv. Some will even say that Moscow did it....

Friday evening, Moscow time, four or five armed men strolled into the Crocus Concert Hall in northwest Moscow and opened fire on the crowd. Before departing the area they had killed at least 40 people and wounded over 100 more. My colleague, Ward Clark, has some good observations; the only one I'd add is that at least two of the attackers had trouble managing magazine changes. While Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, hinted that Ukraine had been behind the attack and threatened to commit atrocities that the Russians have failed to commit so far should Ukraine...

Shortly after a massive terrorist attack in Moscow, Russia, the first unverified claim of responsibility has been made. Initial speculation centered on Chechen rebels or Ukrainians, but according to a post put out by the Amaq News Agency, which is the propaganda wing for ISIS, the terrorist group is saying it carried out the attack. In English: ISIS claims responsibility for the terror attack in Moscow Reports from the scene suggest the men who carried out the attack were bearded and carrying Russian AK-style weapons. That doesn't exactly narrow it down given the proliferation of both throughout the world. Still,...

At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured when five gunmen dressed in camouflage opened fire with automatic weapons at people at a concert in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, in one of the worst such attacks on Russia in years. Flames leapt into the sky and plumes of black smoke rose above the venue, Reuters pictures and video showed. Russian media reported a second blast at the venue and there were reports that some of the gunmen had barricaded themselves somewhere in the building. ... It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were. ...

Three armed men opened fire inside a concert hall in the Moscow area, according to Russian state media agencies TASS and RIA Novosti. There are believed to be dead and wounded, Russian state media reported, without specifying any numbers. “People in camouflage, at least three, burst into the ground floor of the Crocus City Hall and opened fire with automatic weapons,” RIA Novosti reported Friday, citing its correspondent on the scene. RIA Novosti said the three men “threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire” in the concert hall.

Terrorist attack in Russia, Several gunmen fired shots at a concert hall in Moscow on Friday

Douglas Macgregor presents the REAL State of the Union! You won't want to miss these insightful perspectives, reflections, and unique viewpoints. (10 minute YouTube video at the link)

Vladimir Putin joked about Tucker Carlson being rejected by the CIA after he finished college during his interview with the conservative polemist—his first with a western journalist since ordering the full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The interview was released on Carlson's website and X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday and covered Russian history, the war in Ukraine, NATO, imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich and his relationships with Joe Biden and Donald Trump. During the conversation Putin discussed the 2014 Ukrainian Maidan revolution, which led to the ousting of then pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, which he claimed took place...

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Russian authorities accidentally revealed the addresses of the country's secret military buildings, institutions, and spy homes, in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, an investigative site found. The Dossier Center, a project launched by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, found the addresses listed in a 434-page document titled "Special Group", which was published on the Moscow City Hall website. The document listed properties where there must be "no blackouts." The list reportedly included a range of top-secret government facilities, homes belonging to GRU (the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) officers and President...

The C.I.A.’s concerns were not unwarranted. In 2019, the Russians undertook an elaborate operation to find Mr. Poteyev, forcing a scientist from Oaxaca, Mexico, to help. The scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, was an unlikely spy. He studied microbiology in Kazan, Russia, and later earned a doctorate in the subject from the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a source of pride for his family, with a history of charitable work and no criminal past. But the Russians used Mr. Fuentes’s partner as leverage. He had two wives: a Russian living in Germany and another in Mexico. In 2019,...