The terrorist attack, or rather mass murder, that took place on 22 March 2024 at the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, still leaves more questions than answers. And for some reason, few people remember the official statements from several key geopolitical centres that preceded the terrorist attack.

And they were as follows:

Pope Francis called for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, explicitly stating that the losing side should raise the "white flag", i.e. initiate an end to the war. For some reason, everyone thought that the head of the Vatican was calling for surrender in Ukraine.

But almost immediately the head of France, who has close ties with the Vatican, made it clear that he would not allow Ukraine to be defeated and capitulate. We are talking about Emmanuel Macron's statement about his readiness to send troops to Ukraine under the pretext of preventing Russia's victory in the war. And he even specified where - in Odessa. In other words, another nuclear power, France, has been given a base on the shores of the Black Sea. For the time being, we would like to remind you that only one nuclear power - the Russian Federation - has such bases in the Black Sea.

"Kavkazplus" has already written that France, having obtained a base on the Black Sea coast, is "getting closer" to the South Caucasus, where its new "military outpost" Armenia is located, which is simply "rapidly" arming itself and building a "military axis" with Iran and India.

The terrorist attack in Crocus immediately drew attention to this process and France's intentions to "open a logistical corridor" to the Black Sea and on to Armenia in the background. The terrorist attack showed that the Russian Federation is finding it increasingly difficult to protect even the inhabitants of its capital, who can be shot at by hundreds of armed thugs. But not so long ago, the Armenian nationalists were sure that Russia could protect them from "genocide", or rather from retribution for their crimes, if they were strong enough. And that's why there is no doubt that after such terrorist attacks (as indicators of the empire's weakness) the desire to "drag" France into the South Caucasus and kick out the Russian Federation will only increase.

And what is the link between the terrorist attack and the Pope and the Vatican? At first sight, nothing. Few people paid attention to the fact that the terrorist attack with such victims became possible "thanks" to the concert of the band "Picnic".  "Piknik" is a Russian rock band from the "almost forgotten" 80-90s of the last century. It seems that today it is threatened, if not by oblivion, by a very modest popularity among the "over 40s", but not among young people. Nevertheless, tickets for their concert on March 22, 2024 were completely sold out. And the band's popularity has been boosted in recent months in the Russian Federation. This position seems a little strange, given that the band's leader, Edmund Shklyarsky, is Polish by father (and Poland is known to support Ukraine in the current conflict) and Catholic by religion. And not just any Catholic. In that fateful summer for the countries of the former Soviet Union, Edmund Shklyarsky took part in a pilgrimage on foot to the Pope in the Polish town of Czestochowa. This shows that he had already become "his own" for the Vatican. Shklyarsky's return from Poland coincided with the SCSE coup that buried the USSR, and on August 22, 1991, Piknik and Shklyarsky performed at the post-coup "Rock Against Tanks" concert in Leningrad's Palace Square. 

It can be assumed that at least the leader of the band "Picnic" has long been "in the crosshairs" of the Vatican's special services, since such "personnel" (a Catholic, a famous musician, "a fighter against totalitarianism of the SCSE format") cannot be ignored there.

A terrorist attack of the magnitude of the one in Moscow on 22 March 2024 is impossible without the participation of special services. Whose is another question, but they are at least "coordinated" with global centres. The Vatican is one of them. And "people of the Vatican" in the person of the same Shklyarsky acted, figuratively speaking, as a symbolic "bait for a mass gathering of people". By the way, Shklyarsky and his "picnic" are not the only "friends" of the Vatican who, after the outbreak of the war, sharply "repainted" themselves and became ultra-militant ultra-patriots of Russia.

It is also interesting to note that the Russian authorities were warned of the impending terrorist attack by the United States. On the eve of the attack, the United States and other Western powers strongly discouraged their citizens in Russia from attending mass events. And after the terrorist attack, the same United States released information that the organisation Khorasan Wilayah, a branch of the Islamic State operating in Afghanistan, had claimed responsibility for the attack. " Khorasan Wilayah seeks to overthrow the existing governments of the historic region of Great Khorasan (which includes northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan, southern Turkmenistan, most of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).

The Russian Federation immediately rejected the US version, and Russian patriots raised a real howl that the version of the involvement of IS " Khorasan Wilayah " was being specially promoted by the US to divert "Russian righteous anger" from the alleged "real culprit of the terrorist attack" - Ukraine. However, the fact that " Khorasan Wilayah" is a serious terrorist organisation was recently stated by none other than the Chairman of the Council of Heads of Security Bodies and Special Services of the CIS member states, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia.  Alexander Bortnikov explicitly stated that Khorasan Wilayah, a branch of the international terrorist organisation Islamic State, is building up its capabilities, which will eventually allow it to move on to committing terrorist acts outside Afghanistan. And now the US claims that such a terrorist attack outside Afghanistan, in Moscow, took place at least with the participation of Khorasan Wilayah (although this participation may be limited to the fact that they simply took the massacre upon themselves without actually being involved in it). 

It is also very interesting to look at the map of the historical "Great Khorasan", claimed by the same ISIS "Wilayat Khorasan". This is, in fact, an "alternative" corridor between China and the Caspian Sea to the Middle Corridor, which runs through the territories of the Turkic states, but to the south and through "Iranian-speaking" countries and regions. Iran is primarily interested in such a corridor and wants to extend it through Armenia and Georgia to the Black Sea and through Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, if we recall the epic of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, we cannot help but come to a paradoxical conclusion. ISIS was essentially 'clearing' territory in the region for Iranian proxies.  Today, in Iraq and Syria, the territories once controlled by ISIS are controlled by the Iranian IRGC, including one of the most important cities in Iraq, Mosul, which France and Britain fought over as the "inheritance of the Ottoman Empire" after the First World War. France was then forced to cede Mosul to the British. And today it turns out that not only Mosul, destroyed in the battles with ISISIL, has been given to "pro-French" Iran, but also a corridor has been created between the Mediterranean and Iran, and Iran intends to take this corridor to China through the lands of the historical "Great Khorasan".

The question arises whether the same combination is being prepared with " Khorasan Wilayah" in Afghanistan and Tajikistan as with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Especially since the western part of the historical "Great Khorasan", or conditionally "Little Khorasan", is part of Iran.

But Iran has 'views' on other territories, most notably Persian-speaking Tajikistan. There may also be plans to break through the corridor, provoke IS "Khorasan Wilayah" into war and repression against the Shiites (as in Iraq), and then move IRGC units into the regions of Afghanistan that are of interest to Iran.

Here we come to another strange "coincidence": according to the Russian investigation, all the terrorists are Tajiks. Moreover, they do not even speak Russian! There can be no doubt that anti-Tajik sentiments will rise sharply in Russia after the terrorist attack. By the way, it is not only Russia that claims "friendship with Tajikistan" and, in fact, control over this Central Asian country. Iran also claims for control over Tajikistan. And Iran and France are in geopolitical tandem, both about Armenia and in the Near and Middle East. Today we observe the "removal" of the Russian Federation from Armenia by France, but the turn has not yet come to Tajikistan. Well, after the terrorist attack in "Crocus," there can be no doubt that just as Armenia today hopes more on France and Iran than on the Russian Federation, Tajikistan will slowly sway towards Iran "for a big alliance" with Iran (France). It remains to "lay a corridor" through northern Afghanistan, where a significant part of the population is Tajiks and pro-Iranian Shiite Hazaras, and we will get an Iranian corridor between Iranian Khorasan and Tajikistan bordering China.

Alexandre Zakariadze