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“Camouflage-clad gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at concertgoers near Moscow on Friday… in an attack claimed by Islamic State militants. In the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege, gunmen sprayed civilians with bullets just before Soviet-era rock group ‘Picnic’ was to perform to a full house at the 6,200-seat the Crocus City Hall just west of the capital.” Reuters
“Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Monday that last week's deadly attack at a concert outside Moscow was carried out by Islamic militants, but suggested it was also to the benefit of Ukraine and that Kyiv may have played a role… Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia's Investigative Committee, told the Kremlin meeting the death toll had risen to 139, with 182 people wounded. Four men of Tajik origin were remanded in custody on terrorism charges.” Reuters
The right argues that ISIS’s renewed strength was made possible by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Mr. Biden promised that the U.S. would have over-the-horizon capability to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a terrorist sanctuary, but if that’s true you can’t tell from the ISIS-Khorasan comeback. Unworried about a U.S. attack on its hideouts, ISIS leaders can focus on planning attacks against foreigners, as they have in Iran and now Moscow…
“That Americans haven’t been hit recently, at home or abroad, is a blessing but not a guarantee of future safety. The ISIS revival argues for keeping the limited U.S. military presence in Syria and Iraq as a check on the return of the 2014 caliphate. The posts are vital to intelligence collection, and perhaps they played a part in gathering the intel that the U.S. had about an attack in Moscow.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“The Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, wasn’t supposed to be the West’s problem anymore — not after the group killed 13 U.S. troops and over 170 Afghan civilians at the attack at Abbey Gate amid the bugout from Afghanistan in 2021. ISIS-K was said by Biden administration officials to be the Taliban’s problem, and it was one to which our old foe was diligently attending…
“ISIS isn’t the only terrorist organization developing the capacity to project terrorism abroad, despite the Taliban’s varying degrees of hostility toward that enterprise. Afghanistan remains ‘a place of global significance for terrorism, with approximately 20 terrorist groups operating in the country,’ read a 2023 United Nations Sanctions Monitoring Team report… It was a matter of time before the transnational plots gestating safely inside Afghanistan reached maturity. That time is upon us.”
Noah Rothman, National Review
Some argue, “Paranoia is my birthright, as it is for anyone born in the Soviet Union. But the official Kremlin story line is already a shambles. In one of the most surveilled cities on earth, where you can be arrested in 30 seconds for whispering ‘no war,’ the terrorists continued their attack for more than an hour and then simply drove away…
“Twenty-five years ago, when then-Prime Minister Putin needed a platform for his presidential campaign, a series of terrorist apartment bombings in Russia launched the Second Chechen War. I laid out the copious evidence that these were false-flag attacks, staged by the FSB, in my 2015 book, ‘Winter Is Coming.’ It’s a deed so shocking that it is difficult to believe—until you realize what sort of man Mr. Putin is. He has no allergy to blood, Russian or any other kind, if spilling it furthers his goals.”
Garry Kasparov, Wall Street Journal
The left argues that the attack will weaken Putin and worries about the threat from ISIS.
The left argues that the attack will weaken Putin and worries about the threat from ISIS.
“Mr. Putin has erected a totalitarian regime on the claim that his unquestioned preeminence means stability and security for Russia. He constantly warns of enemies bent on causing chaos and instability. He cemented his power just this week with a simulacrum of an election in which he supposedly received almost 90 percent of the vote…
“But after the bloodbath at the concert hall, Russians are entitled to wonder whether Mr. Putin’s authoritarian system is effective at protecting anyone but him… Mr. Putin has survived in power partly by persuading many Russians, especially in big cities, that his one-man rule represents their best hope for security, abroad and at home. Unfortunately for Mr. Putin, if only one man rules, then, when catastrophe strikes, only one man can be held responsible.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“Putin’s intimation of Ukrainian involvement makes little sense to me. It beggars belief that the most hunted men in Russia would immediately drive in a white Renault toward the most heavily militarized and monitored zone in the entire region when they could drive in any other direction and be alone in a birch forest somewhere… Everything we know about Russia and its history with ISIS supports the theory that ISIS perpetrated the attack…
“ISIS had a huge Russian and Central Asian contingent in its heyday. And the fault lines in Russian politics and society have foretold this kind of atrocity for literally centuries. It would be a surprise if four guys piled into a car and sped toward Ukraine after committing mass murder. Nothing could be less surprising than an ISIS attack in a region susceptible to just such an attack.”
Graeme Wood, The Atlantic
“That the Islamic State still has the capacity to carry out such attacks… carries a grim reminder about how hard it is to stamp out any terrorist organization. The United States and its partners, particularly the Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces, did manage to destroy the ISIS ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq, but Islamic State’s noxious ideology continues to inspire the fanatics of ISIS-K…
“The question now is whether it will be possible to assemble an effective international coalition to address the growing threat from ISIS-K. It would have to include some pretty strange bedfellows: the United States, Russia, Iran and the Taliban. The United States has actually undertaken limited cooperation with the Taliban against ISIS-K… Based on recent history, however, it seems doubtful that there will be much cooperation between the United States and Russia or Iran, however helpful it would be to those countries.”
Max Boot, Washington Post
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