The peace-loving peoples of the world woke up last Saturday to the shocking news that, on Friday night, a terrorist attack had killed 150 young concertgoers in Moscow and injured hundreds more, many of whom are in critical condition and fighting for their lives.
With all eyes inevitably looking toward the Nato-backed fascists in Ukraine, the US imperialists were quick – too quick, in fact – to declare that they knew for a fact that the Ukrainians had not been involved. Within an hour of the attack, during which four gunmen opened fire on the audience at the Crocus city hall and then set fire to the building before leaving the scene, the White House made its statement – and imperialist media went into overdrive to amplify the US narrative, which claims that the attack was carried out by an islamist terror group called ‘Isis K’ that has no connection whatsoever to the Ukrainian government.
Leaving aside the fact that Isis is a proxy army created, trained and armed by US and British imperialism, several facts failed to stack up regarding this assertion.
First is that the gunmen did not seek martyrdom in the traditional jihadi manner, but jumped in their car and fled like any hired mercenaries on completion of their mission. Indeed, Scott Ritter has pointed out that in the video in which they recorded their intention to commit this ‘divine’ act ‘for Allah’, the supposed ‘jihadists’ held up the wrong hand as they swore – a change that may not mean much to the uninitiated, but which according to Islam is the difference between God and the Devil.
Next, having been allowed to flee by Russian security forces, which quietly followed them, the supposed ‘jihadis’ headed for the Ukrainian border. All four gunmen were taken into custody once their object had been clearly ascertained by the Russians, who picked them up in a rural location where no bystanders could be hurt during the course of their capture.
No doubt more information will be discovered by investigators over the coming days. A few facts are already clear, however.
The first is that the USA undoubtedly had advance warning of the attack. This is either because it directly ordered it, or because its security agents picked up information which they failed to pass on.
The US embassy in Russia had been carrying a notice on its website warning US citizens to avoid mass gatherings such as concerts.
The likelihood of US involvement is also underlined by the fact that Ukraine’s (now demoted) puppetmaster-in-chief Victoria Nuland, blurted out in an unscheduled street interview the last time she was in Kiev that Russia was in for some “nice surprises”.
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Danilov, until recently the head of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, gloated on television the day after the attack on the concert: “Is it fun in Moscow today? I think a lot of fun for you. I think we ought to do this sort of fun more often, You are after all ‘brotherly people’, and maybe we should visit you more regularly.”
In fact, it is quite possible that west-backed mercenaries posing as ‘islamist’ may have been involved in some way, answering to western and/or Ukrainian handlers. It has long been known to military observers that Ukraine is the new focus of operations for British and US-trained gangsters who have been evacuated from the imperialists’ failed regime-change war in Syria. Meanwhile, some Russian analysts believe the trigger-pullers were recent additions to such forces, with signs that they may have been recruited through Ukraine’s embassy in Tajikistan.
Whoever pulled the trigger, there can be no doubt this action was ultimately carried out on the orders of some part of the Nato alliance, acting alone or together, in the hope of creating unrest and dissatisfaction in Russia. Whatever occurs on the battlefield of the war in Ukraine, the west’s overarching goal remains that of regime change in Moscow.
Certainly, hopes for achieving this via the battlefield are waning fast, as conditions on the field are turning decisively towards an outright Russian victory this year. In this context, the imperialists’ desperation to somehow delay or reverse what even they can now see is an unstoppable trend is palpable.
Hence their increasing resort to terror tactics against the wider Russian population, of which the attack on the Crocus concert hall was not the first but was by far and away the bloodiest.
Hence also President Emmanuel Macron’s desperate efforts to get some small French force officially on the ground in Ukraine, presumably in the mistaken belief that Russia would not dare to attack it, and other Nato soldiers could gradually be brought in to expand it, thus maintaining at least some part of a rump Ukrainian state that the Nato powers could continue to use as a battering ram against Russia.
Not only is Russia not going to allow France to establish an official military presence on the ground in Ukraine, but President Vladimir Putin made it clear in his recent address to the Russian people that the country will not allow the perpetrators of this latest attack to go unpunished either. The investigators will find out who was behind the attack and the country will take all necessary measures to bring the backers as well as their footsoldiers to justice.
As in the case of Palestine, the imperialists may yet live to regret their wanton and ill-disguised criminality, carried out in the arrogant belief that they will always be able to behave as they like with impunity.
British solidarity
On Sunday 24 March, comrades of the CPGB-ML joined a long line of mourners outside the Russian embassy in London. They laid a floral tribute there and delivered the following statement:
We express our deepest condolences for the victims of the atrocities in Moscow on 22 March.
The twenty-fourth of March was a day of mourning in Russia and ordinary people in Britain came to pay their respects, to give sympathy both to the families who lost loved ones and to Russia as a whole. This was a horrific crime in which 150 were slaughtered and many more were injured by the enemies of Russia.
The purpose of the terrorists and their paymasters is to destroy Russia and the morale of its proud peoples, but we know that the legacy of Russian history is to resist and create.
Remembering the victims of this attack, we will continue to honour the countless sacrifices of the peoples of Russia in their fight against fascism.
We have faith in Russia’s tremendous resilience in defending its sovereignty against the US-led Nato and its cowardly proxies. They shall not pass.
As members of the British working class and as communists of the CPGB-ML, we extend our sympathy and heartfelt solidarity to the peoples of Russia and their elected government in their valiant flight against the darkness of imperialism.
In Russia, as in Palestine, the enemy is one, but humanity’s struggle towards light will prevail.
