Russian Opposition Blasts Putin's Broken Security Promises After Moscow Attack
www.themoscowtimes.com

... Russia's opposition has slammed Vladimir Putin's broken security promise in the wake of the Moscow concert hall attack, saying the country's intelligence agencies were too focused on hunting Kremlin critics instead of actual threats.

Questions have swirled over how the country's powerful security apparatus was unable to thwart the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades " even as Western counterparts issued public and private warnings just two weeks prior.

"What is striking is the catastrophic incompetence of our security services," said Ivan Zhdanov, the former head of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.

For Putin, a former Soviet spy and one-time head of the FSB security agency, accusations of an intelligence failure could sting.

He came to power on the final day of 1999 promising Russia security as rebel insurgents launched a spate of attacks amid war in Chechnya.

Putin's first years as president saw militants storm a Moscow theatre, taking more than 900 people hostage, and the Beslan school siege -- in which more than 300 people, mostly children, were killed.

After that, he chipped away at civil liberties and launched an escalating crackdown against his opponents, which he justified by the need to stamp out the terrorist threat.

"For decades we have been told that the curtailment of our rights is necessary for security," Zhdanov said in a post on Telegram over the weekend. ...

OK, my first comment... major kudos to The Moscow Times.

Those journalists seem to have death wish.(I have a different expression from my Fraternity days of decades ago, but it would only be criticized as sexist now because, well, only males have balls...)

Yet, those reporters report as they do.

I'd advise them to avoid windows....