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Some sort of mass shooting terrorist attack in Moscow at a concert hall and a nearby mall. Dozens dead.
The US Embassy warned embassy staff, on March 7th, that a significant (terror) event would occur within the next 48 in Moscow. Don't attend large gatherings.. Well. they were close. Follow-on reports detail mass casualties, fires and roof collapses.
All planned social and official gatherings in Moscow have been cancelled UFN. St. Petersburg is doing the same thing. Over the last 30 days, I've read intelligence reports that Putin opposition needs only a match to light a potential mass demonstrations against Putin's sham re-election. One article I read (a Forbes interview of a renown Kremlinologist) that told the interviewer that Putin would be hard to remove a a result of his 20 year long presidency and carefully crafted security measures, killing of opponents who could be a risk to his staying power, and increasing repression of the population along with suppression of news outlets other than those that are state controlled.
He offered that the most likely match would come from inside the regime and consist of siloviki (insiders with KGB and FSB backgrounds sick of Putin's rule) along with collaborating oligarchs. Some real cloak and dagger shit. If Putin's special operation in Ukraine goes bad, he's in trouble. It is a shame that the Russian are making progress while R's in the House dither, holding up ammunition supplies for Ukraine.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. But the shine on the NC Trophy is embarrassingly wearing off. It's M B-Ball ..... or hockey or volley ball or name your college sport favorite time ...... until next year.
Mike Gallagher already announced he was leaving Congress but now says he’ll be resigning in April. The post below suggests the timing is very deliberate: his seat will stay empty until November. The Republican majority shrinks again. Just make Jeffries the Speaker at this point.
..... 135 and climbing. Meanwhile, in Putin's first public statement more than 19h after the terrorist attack, he blamed Ukraine and Ukraine's supporters. This is no more than a continuation of the false narrative Putin has created for consumption by the Russian masses.
The delay in Putin's public announcement was more than likely precipitated by him going to ground fearing an assault on his presidency. He disappeared from the public eye when Yevgeny Progozhin, leader of the paramilitary Wagner Group, called for rebellion and marched on Moscow. Reportedly, he hid out in one of his palaces for a week before reappearing. This delay was more of the same and the 19h were probably spent by his intelligence and security agencies to assure Putin his presidency was not under attack
I'd like to think his regime is less stable than it appears to be from the outside looking in. Hard to say. Putin's Russia is a dangerous sovereign that during his entire presidency and especialy in the last 10 years, has purposely acted to create global instability. He is responsible for the death and destruction he has wrought on Ukraine by 25 months of brutal attacks. He is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his own soldiers trying to topple the Ukrainian government and bring Ukrainians to heel.
The western alliance's inability to collectively advantage Ukraine in it's war with Russia may turn out to be the worst failure in geopolitical strategy in history. We mostly have a group of Republican ignoramuses who have placed political interests above international security interests to blame. Fuck them and the week kneed Chairman that, as president, has the ability to get Ukraine what it needs in the face of R stonewalling but has inexplicably failed to act.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. But the shine on the NC Trophy is embarrassingly wearing off. It's M B-Ball ..... or hockey or volley ball or name your college sport favorite time ...... until next year.
Jeff, what is ISIS’ beef with Russia? Leftover animosity from the Chechnya war? Putin’s support for Assad? I thought they were all kind of cool with one another given their common enemy, the West.
Jeff, what is ISIS’ beef with Russia? Leftover animosity from the Chechnya war? Putin’s support for Assad? I thought they were all kind of cool with one another given their common enemy, the West.
My take on this question is that the attack on concert goers that took place near Moscow reveals growing tension between Christian Moscow and Islamic countries of the "stans," all of them previously Russian states of the USSR or firmly in it's orbit. For months, there's been growing tensions between the countries of the caucuses that have become more western in character and want no part of Putin's repression in Russia or to return to be a subservient part of Putin's revanchist dream of Russian empire of the 17th and 18th centruies.
It also reveals the resources and ability of a resurgent IS to conduct international attacks targeting "Christians," Western interests in the region and enemies of Islam. IS is pissed off that Putin effectively supported Bashir's struggle to hold power in Syria. You're right about that being a causes belli or at least motivated organized, big time international terror attacks. ISW assesses the Moscow concert goers OP is consistent with previous large scale terror attacks executed by ISIS through their various subordinate organizations in this case, IS-K
IS-K that now freely operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan - thank you Joe Biden - has claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack and did so almost immediately after it's execution and recognition by global media outlets. The claims of responsibility and the mechanisms they use to announce these attacks also matches that of previous terror attacks. So Putin's claims of Ukrainian and western involvement are right out of his play-book to shield the Russian public from the truth and indirectly bolster support for his special operation in Ukraine.
Interestingly, there is growing anger among Russian ultranationalists with the Kremlin's policy on immigration from the "stans" into Russia. It's pretty clear the Russian MOD is encouraging large scale immigration and targeting these foreigners both inside Russia and those residing in the "stans" that have dual citizenship for conscription or "volunteering" for military service at gun-point. Putin doesn't want this important source of conscripted soldiers to be reduced by protests coming from racially pure Russians ..... it's Putin's immigration problem similar to that of Biden's. Identifying the attackers as white Ukrainians instead of truthfully identifying them as ethnic, dark skinned, Islamic foreigners is likely to prompt protests from ultranationalist that Putin absolutely does not want.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. But the shine on the NC Trophy is embarrassingly wearing off. It's M B-Ball ..... or hockey or volley ball or name your college sport favorite time ...... until next year.
Thanks, Jeff. The news this morning is that the 4 men detained by Russia are all from Tajikistan. Apparently that is an area that ISIS has been heavily recruiting.
Appeals court lowered Trump's bond payment to $175M and gave him an additional 10 days to come up with it.
It is still a gross violation of the 8th Amendment. There is no rationale for the excessive fine, whether it is $ 454M or $ 175M. Both are excessive in a constitutional sense. What we have is a state that has decided to accomplish its political agenda by persecuting a man who might be elected President. A New York state court will likely uphold the $ 454M, but the Supreme Court will never allow this lawless standard to prevail. There are no damages period.
On the other hand, Biden has facilitated illegal immigration in the tens of millions in violation of law. https://crsreports.congress.gov/prod...0law.%E2%80%9D. The actual cost to American taxpayers is in the hundreds of millions. Without presidential immunity, Biden and his enablers should be held liable.
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