The Peanut Gallery: Der Kreml bestreitet unverblümt die offensichtliche Schuld des IS am Crocus-Massaker

Welcome to the [Peanut Gallery](https://www.nuttyspectacle.com/)! Today we’re going to talk about dementia.

Please remember that I know nothing.

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**[Ukraine:](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-25-2024)**

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>Russian officials are proposing actionable but likely impractical solutions to the emotional outcries for retribution in response to the Crocus City Hall attack.

>A Just Russia Party Leader Sergei Mironov called for Russia to abolish the visa-free regime with Central Asian countries in order to regulate migration and counter terrorist attacks.[11] Russian State Duma Deputy from occupied Crimea Mikhail Sheremet and State Duma Deputy Chairperson and recent New People Party presidential candidate Vladislav Davankov also recently proposed harsher measures against migrants in response to the Crocus City Hall attack.

Folks, I’ve got to admit something: I feel a bit a schadenfreude at the Crocus City Hall attacks. Just a smug sense of, ‘Well now you know what it feels like. Welcome to the 21st Century, Russia. Better late than never you stupid fucks.’

Now I must ask you, does feeling that way make me a horrible person?

Yes. Yes, of course it does. I made peace with that fact a long, long time ago. But please afford me the opportunity to argue my case.

Everyone in the States (above a certain age) has a personal memory about September 11, 2001. That atrocity is seared into our nation’s collective conscience. Before that day we thought ourselves untouchable, tucked away as we were in our [personal hemisphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine). I think it was right around that moment we all collectively remembered the rest of the world existed…and sort of had an existential crisis over how we were supposed to fight a religious war when our Constitution explicitly separates church and State. Says so right there on the tin.

>Amendment I:

>Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

* [America’s Birth Certificate.](https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript#:~:text=Bill%20of%20Rights.%22-,Amendment%20I,for%20a%20redress%20of%20grievances.)

Unfortunately not every American reads that beautiful document, so more than a few of us took it upon themselves to LARP the Tenth Crusade. And who better of a playmate than the local brown person? Pakistani or Tunisian—it didn’t matter. All of Islam was to blame.

Eventually most of us got over the trauma and moved on. Some didn’t, though, and for them the wound festered. A lot of us became *super* racist for a time. Rage at Islam became a pulsating hate of minorities in general, which eventually metastasized into the MAGA movement.

I bring this up because Russia is going through something similar. Their collective zeitgeist is coalescing around ISIS as the perpetrator, despite the Kremlin’s efforts to blame Ukraine. Hate is a *powerful* source of energy and focus, unifying a people into the likes of organizations like Wagner. If the Kremlin doesn’t harness that focus then they may find themselves becoming its target.

>Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Kremlin officials appear to be struggling to maintain a consistent rhetorical line about the Crocus City Hall attack, indicating that the Kremlin has not fully figured out how to reconcile its information operations with the reality of its intelligence and law enforcement failure.

>Putin and other senior officials have not fully coalesced around the false narrative that Ukraine somehow conducted the March 22 attack on the Crocus concert venue for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility. Putin directly suggested that the attackers were connected to Ukraine in his March 23 address following the attack.

I find this *fascinating* because I think this might be the first time since the war began that the Russian people collectively ignored the official narrative. They know ISIS is to blame and the harder the Kremlin pushes anything counter to it the worse it is going to get for them. At the same time, however, Putin *needs* this to be the West’s fault.

Tucker’s interview demonstrated Putin is not a man in his right mind. Putin’s paranoia (and megalomaniacal delusions) governs his comprehension of the world. In his mind he is the reincarnation of Peter the Great, destined to unify the Russian Empire and restore his people’s former glory. Opposition against an external, oppressive force is a natural outlet for this energy, while also relieving cognitive dissonance at contradictions by providing a ready excuse for misfortunate. The thought chain goes something like this: “I am perfect, therefore this obvious failure must be the fault of nefarious intent.”

Secret Western spies are to blame for the Crocus City Hall attack, either NATO assassins or Ukrainian agents (does it really matter?). We’re to blame for the high price of eggs. And for the harsh crackdowns during the election. Also the drafting of every male of fighting age.! Power outages too—plus taxes, shortages…Oh! And the weather. Can’t forget the weather.

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>Russian authorities continue to militarize children in occupied Ukraine as part of efforts to Russify Ukrainian children and create a resource for Russia’s future force generation needs. (..) Russian authorities have approved the creation of the Luhansk Cadet Corps under the Russian Investigative Committee (Russia’s rough equivalent to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation), possibly before 2025.[61] Lysohor stated that Luhansk Cadet Corps will teach Ukrainian children about pro-Russian concepts including their “debt” to the Russian “Motherland.”

[Please give Ukraine what they need to bring this war to an end.](https://u24.gov.ua/)

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‘Q’ for the Community:

* Will ISIS hit Russia again?

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* Join the conversation of on /r/TheNuttySpectacle!