In the aftermath of the attack on a Moscow concert hall that left at least 133 dead and over 140 wounded, Russian President Vladimir Putin used a television address to the Russian people to blame Ukraine for the incident.

 Dear citizens of Russia,

I am writing to you in connection with the bloody and barbaric terrorist act, the victims of which were dozens peaceful, innocent people – our compatriots, including children and teenagers, women. For the lives of the victims, those who are in serious condition, now Doctors are struggling. I am sure they will do everything possible and even impossible for to preserve the lives and health of all the wounded. Special thanks to the crews ambulance and air ambulance, special forces, firefighters, rescuers who did everything to save people's lives, to get them out of fire, from the epicenter of the fire and smoke, to avoid even greater losses.

I can't ignore it the help of ordinary citizens who did not stay in the first minutes after the tragedy indifferent and indifferent and along with doctors and intelligence officers They provided first aid, took the victims to hospitals.

We will provide the necessary assistance to everyone To the families in whose lives a terrible misfortune has come, to the wounded and injured. Express Deep, sincere condolences to all those who have lost their relatives and friends. Together with you, the whole country, all our people are grieving. I declare March 24 to be the day national mourning.

In Moscow and the Moscow region, in all Additional anti-terrorist and anti-sabotage measures have been introduced in the regions of the country. The main thing now is not to give it to those who are behind this bloodbath, commit a new crime.

As for the investigation of this crime and the results of operational-investigative actions, at the present time We can say the following. All four direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all Those who shot and killed people have been found and detained. They tried to escape and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border [emphasis by author]. A total of 11 people were detained. Federal Security Service of Russia, others Law enforcement agencies are working to identify and uncover all the complicity Terrorist bases: those who provided them with transport, outlined ways to escape from the scene of the crime, prepared caches, caches with weapons and ammunition.

To reiterate, the investigative and law enforcement agencies will do everything they can to establish all the details of the crime. But it is already obvious that we are faced with more than just a thorough, cynical a planned terrorist attack, but with a planned and organized mass murder peaceful, defenseless people. The criminals walked in cold blood and purposefully Namely, to kill, to shoot our citizens, our children at point-blank range. Like the Nazis, who once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they conceived to arrange a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation.

All the perpetrators, organizers and customers of this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever directs them. I repeat: we will establish and punish Everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this blow for Russia, for our people.

We know what the threat of terrorism is. We are counting on cooperation with all states that sincerely share our pain and are ready to really join forces in the fight against the common the enemy, international terrorism, with all its manifestations.

Terrorists, murderers, non-humans who do not and cannot have a nationality will face one unenviable fate. retribution and oblivion. They have no future. Our common duty now, our military comrades at the front, all citizens of the country – to be together in one rank. I believe so, And it will be, because no one and nothing can shake our unity and will, our determination and courage, the strength of the united people of Russia. No one will succeed to sow the poisonous seeds of discord, panic and discord in our multinational society.

Russia has gone through more than once the hardest, sometimes unbearable trials, but it became even stronger. So it will be And now.

(Note: I assume more of the transcript will be generated over the next few days. The Kremlin, for their own reasons, releases official transcripts a few paragraphs at a time over several days.)

As was posted last night, ISIS is operating in Russian territory in the northern Caucasus, and that group has taken credit for the attack. The Russians carried out counterterrorism operations in Moscow earlier in March to prevent an attack on a synagogue. The US and several other countries' embassies issued a public warning of an imminent attack on a large gathering in Moscow — a concert hall was specifically mentioned. Putin ignored the warnings as some sort of Western plot to destabilize Russia.

BACKGROUND:

US Embassy Warned Russia of Terrorist Attack and Putin Ignored It

NEW: ISIS Claims Responsibility for Moscow Attack in Surprise Twist, Skepticism Follows

The Moscow Terror Attack: Some Initial Thoughts and Impressions

(UPDATED): Terror Attack in Moscow Concert Hall - Multiple Fatalities Reported

Putin's statement of Ukrainian involvement is based on the capture of four of the 11 alleged perpetrators in Bryansk Oblast, which borders Ukraine. 

Why Putin thinks fleeing to Ukraine, rather than to the EU, is a plausible story is beyond me. Moving through one heavily militarized frontier into another without getting detained or shot is a low-probability exercise. What isn't important here is that any of what Putin says is plausible, but, rather, that he says it. In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”

The Russians have acknowledged that the men are Russian citizens from Central Asia. 

The video of the on-the-spot interrogation is not for the squeamish.

#BreakingNews 🚨 #Russia #MoscowAttack Graphic Footage has been released showing Russian Security Forces as they Cut the Ear off one of the Terrorists who were Captured in the Bryansk Region of Western Russian this morning before Feeding him his own Ear.https://t.co/suLFcKpBZH

— Bhairav (Modi Ka Parivar) 🔱🕉️ 🇮🇳 (@BhairavVaam) March 23, 2024

Regardless, it is obvious that "Ukraine did it" is now the official Russian narrative. This is Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

This is RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

As I pointed out yesterday, the bodies had hardly hit the floor in the concert hall when Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, blamed Ukraine.

This campaign is designed for a domestic audience. The only people in the West who are going to buy it are those still hyperventilating over Victoria Nuland and bioweapons labs, and, quite honestly, they are self-discrediting. Russia will apparently try to increase mobilization in the coming year in a very hostile domestic environment.

A Ukrainian attack on a soft target like a concert, while not on the scale of the Russian attack on a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 16, 2022, that killed up to 600 civilians, could possibly create the national outrage needed to support increased mobilization.

Given the laser-like focus of the Russian government on blaming Ukraine, you can't help but recall the apartment block bombings in 1999 in Russia that killed over 300 and injured nearly 1,000. Those attacks were immediately blamed on Chechen guerillas, but it became clear that the FSB had carried out the bombings to create casus belli for the Second Chechen War.

To the extent this propaganda campaign is intended for the West, it will be used to justify increased attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.