Breaking - Shooting and Explosion at Concert Hall in Moscow

Not any more though: the guy who shot the Swedish football fans in Brussels last year escaped. He was caught the next day, and killed then but he had been trying to get away. There was another one in France where a teacher was killed last year too, and the guy was arrested and is in custody. Looks to me like they're no longer quite so keen on all dying at the first go. Maybe it's just getting harder to recruit suicide bombers to the cause?

You mean the movie navy seals with Charlie Sheen? Top quality

You cant even read a thread in a way that you aren't repeating stuff that's already been explained

These lads aren't the masterminds of the attack, they are the grunts, what they know is limited, most of it lies

True enough but we were specifically referring to the bataclan attack in Paris in 2015.

But ya look it's absolutely possible the fsb captured all of these attackers alive. My argument is that it's unusually convenient for them as they can now make the captured men say and admit to whatever they feel benefits Putin in respect to the home audience ie. implicate Ukraine.

And this information has been verified and confirmed, has it? By an independent source?

Or are you just taking Putin's word for it, because he's been a pllar of honesty and integrity over the last couple of years?

Putin is a pathological liar.

What I'm very concerned about is his obsession with a) legacy or b) war, including war with NATO / West; as he has nothing to lose with old age.

His actions to date suggest a pre-meditated trajectory. It's not rational, so it seems intentional. This latest terrorist act and his attempt to blame it on Ukraine follows the same, irrational path (but which he knows perfectly well in his own mind is irrational).

As far as I can see, Putin wants a grand showdown with the West, at any price.

How would having a showdown with is help this

He doesnt a showdown with the west as he'd get a whooping

Or perhaps we all die

Both bad

Why do you think Putin cares about Russia or the West, at least now?

He was responsible for the massacre in the apartment bombings in 1999 that improved his personal ratings; an act that killed Russian civilians. Is that the actions of someone who cares about Russian people?

He's now 71 years old.

NATO has always been his enemy. Is it irrational to think that a political leader who -- all of a sudden -- behaves irrationally over Ukraine understands perfectly well what they are trying to drag the world into?

Putin knows exactly what he's doing. He's slowly trying to drag the world into war.

He thought Ukraine would be over in a week

A fight with the West would end him

Russia is a paper tiger

Do you think Vladimir Putin wants to go out without a concrete legacy?

Look at his actions over this latest terrorist attack i.e. blaming Ukraine. He is dead set, as is Medvedev, in taking the world into war. Even if they are playing the "bad guys", it's almost a role-playing act. It's a sickness that affects the most powerful in society.

They want to use their "toys" i.e. weapons and even nuclear weapons, because they don't really give a damn about the public.

It's all about legacy or vengefulness.

He wants to stay alive, the Ukraine was more about Russia than anything else

So no

The evilness of Russia and the low birth rate are directly linked. You can look at different countries and find different reasons for falling birthrates, but in Russia women choose to have few if any children strictly because they don't see much of a future for them in Putins Russia. In general, Russia is a fantastic place, with fantastic people, and if you lived 10 lifetimes, you would still not see only a very small fraction of what it has to offer. It has 11 times zones, so thats pretty vast. Likewise, there's many different ethnic groups there, scattered over the 21 republics. Both Moscow and St. Petersburg are fantastic cities to visit, from both the historical and architectural perspectives. The big problem is that when you have a very small Nr of people in 100% control, and they are an extremely corrupt people, who treat the Country as their own personal wealth fund, with only scraps left for the rest of the population, and this group use every means possible to keep their grip on power. Putin has absolutely no qualms about murdering hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, (in Ukraine) and you see what happens to any opposition, Navalny being the last of a very long line of murders Putin has committed. But Putin's biggest crime after his murderous disposition, is that he's destroying the very fabric of society by his theft of Russia's wealth. The sumptuous life enjoyed by the few at the top is in stark contrast to the majority of the population, especially in the Republics. Which of course contributes to women not being in favour of bringing children into the world. And that my Friend, is why I don't have much time for Putin and his ilk, and for all the other Putins in the world either, because he's definitely not the only one.

Which war and when because he is all talk

Can you tell me a time when Russia hasn't been like this, because it's been like this for the entire history of the country

The difference is that escalation is slowly increasing, as it should expected to be.

Escalation doesn't happen overnight.

None of that ansers my question.