Former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin's blaming of Ukraine for the Moscow concert hall shooting is absurd.
Polymeropoulos rejected Putin's trying to connect the shooters who killed over 133 people at the Crocus City complex near Moscow to Ukraine, the country his military is currently invading.
Polymeropoulos mentioned that Putin claimed the terrorists were trying to cross the border into Ukraine without any evidence, and Russian TV networks even generated deep fakes to implicate Ukrainian security officials, which Polymeropoulos called nonsense.
The day after the attack, when 11 people related to the incident were detained, including four directly involved, allegations of Ukraine’s involvement started coming out in Russia. Putin echoed some of it during his public address on Saturday.
Putin said, "All four direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, were found and detained. They tried to hide and were moving towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a passage was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border." saidPutin's claims were discussed by Polymeropoulos as a way to deflect from the incompetence of the Russian security service, intensify the crackdown on dissent, and create an opportunity to mobilize more people for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Polymeropoulos stated that Putin's claims were made for various reasons, including deflecting the incompetence of Russian security services and taking advantage of the situation to intensify the crackdown on dissent and potentially increase mobilization.
Polymeropoulos pointed out that Putin could take advantage of the situation to intensify the crackdown on dissent and to mobilize more people for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
