Ethnic hatred grows in Russia after terrorist attack in Moscow region

The New York Times writes about this.

Millions of migrant workers and ethnic minority Russians have faced xenophobia before, but now it has intensified significantly, as the four detainees allegedly involved in the attack are from Tajikistan.

“They need migrants as cannon fodder for the Russian Army and as labor,” Ms. Gannushkina, a Russian human rights defender, said in a phone interview from Moscow. “And when they need to fulfill the plan on fighting terrorism, they’ll also focus on this group” of Tajiks, she said.

"They will grab the Tajiks and blame the Ukrainians," Gannushkina said. "It was clear from the beginning.”

It is noted that Tajiks in Moscow are so frightened that they hardly ever go out. They now fear not only deportation, but also that they may be sent by force to fight a war against Ukraine.

Putin has always sought to use ethnic tensions to his advantage. His rise to power was linked to the war in Chechnya, where Russia attempted to brutally suppress separatist movements. Putin also helped to foment separatism in the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia for the purpose of occupying them.

Terrorist attack in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall 

In Krasnogorsk, Moscow region, a shooting took place at the Crocus City Hall concert venue before the start of the Picnic band's performance. Over 130 people have been reported dead as well as many wounded. The FSB says it has allegedly detained the suspects.

Starting on March 7, American diplomats warned of the threat of terrorist attacks in the Russian capital, Moscow. Subsequently, similar statements were made by representatives of several other Western countries.

Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate is convinced that the shooting at the Crocus shopping center in Moscow is a deliberate provocation by the Putin regime, and the Foreign Ministry said the world should strongly reject Russia's false accusations of Ukraine's alleged involvement. The White House also rejected Ukraine's involvement. 

On March 23, Vladimir Putin made an address on the terrorist attack. According to the Russian dictator, Ukraine was "preparing a window" to allow terrorists who had staged a terrorist attack in Moscow to escape. 

On March 25, at a meeting with security officials, Putin admitted that "radical Islamists" had carried out the attack, but blamed the shooting on "those who are fighting Russia with the hands of the Kyiv regime."

The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, the Director of the FSB, and the spokesperson for the Russian President repeated Putin's version of the "Ukrainian trace" and the involvement of Western intelligence services in the terrorist attack in Moscow. At the same time, self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko denied that the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack were trying to escape to Ukraine.

The Center for Countering Disinformation doubts that the Crocus attack could have been carried out by the perpetrators identified by the Russian authorities.

The US National Security Council (NSC) on Sunday, March 24, unequivocally rejected Russia's attempts to accuse Ukraine of organizing the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall shopping mall near Moscow.