Will Putin try to use the Moscow massacre for his war in Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for trying to help the alleged Moscow attackers escape. Experts say he could use it to bolster his war.

As emergency workers waded through the rubble of Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Sunday, also being picked over was the extent to which the attack might damage Russian President Vladimir Putin — or be used as a pretext to bolster his war in Ukraine.

The terror group ISIS has claimed responsibility after camouflaged men stormed the concert hall Friday night and killed at least 137 people with guns, knives and bombs.

For Putin, who has sold his seemingly lifelong leadership on maintaining order, the massacre will be at least deeply embarrassing. It could even weaken his ironclad rule, particularly after he dismissed American warnings that such an attack might be imminent, some experts say.

“It certainly doesn’t strengthen him,” said John Lough, an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London think tank. “Within the elite itself, there are going to be questions about where the focus has been: Why has there been all this rhetoric about the war in Ukraine, when in actual fact there are other dangers much closer to home?”

Russian National Guard servicemen secure an area at the Crocus City Hall after Friday's attack.Alexander Avilov / Moscow News Agency via APMikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian former oil tycoon turned arch Putin critic, called security lapses that allowed the attack to proceed “a complete failure of a police state” in a post on X.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-moscow-attack-isis-war-ukraine-crocus-rcna144826

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