Deaths and injuries have been reported after a gun attack at a concert hall near Moscow, Russian media say.
At least four people dressed in camouflage opened fire at the Crocus City Hall, social media video verified by the BBC shows.
Video obtained by Reuters news agency shows a large blaze and smoke rising from the hall.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry described the incident as a “terrorist attack”. Specialist police are at the scene
Footage on social media showed gunmen inside the concert hall while state media reported that some people were still inside.
Tass news agency reported a third of the concert venue is on fire and the roof is almost completely ablaze.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community to condemn the incident, which it called “a monstrous crime”.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the images of the shooting were “horrible and hard to watch”.
Probably some false-flag by Putin.
That wouldn’t make sense.
Putin was behind a series of apartment bombings when Yeltsin was president, thus making Yeltsin look weak. Yeltsin stepped down shortly after the bombings.
But now Putin is president, so whoever is behind this attack is making Putin look weak.
Unless a perpetrator is quickly identified and Putin sends the spetsnaz to get them. Then he will look like a strong leader who can defeat Russia’s enemies.
Even if the perpetrators were killed at the scene, whoever is in charge looks incompetent.
I mean, the government killed the Uvalde shooter but everyone still thought the government was incompetent.
Not saying it’s a false flag, but in this case the goal of the false flag would be to put blame on Ukraine.
Every time Ukraine successfully strikes deep inside Russia, the Russian government is embarrassed. That’s why Russia prefers blaming careless cigarette butts than blaming Ukraine.
It does make sense. People are resisting Violence and questioning Putin for being so brutal. By instilling Fear, he can legitimize his brutal response to everything that isn’t the russian State.
Putin has no need to legitimize what he does.
Putin doesn’t let people call it a war. He only made a “partial mobilization”. He is cracking down hard on dissent.
He is obviously scared of the People. He needs to appear legitimate in their eyes.
Not calling it a war looks even worse if the country you are not at war with just killed dozens of people in your capital. So if this a false flag op, it’s inherently self-contradictory.