FEARS are growing that Vladimir Putin could twist the ISIS massacre in Moscow to execute 4,000 Ukrainian prisoners, an expert has warned.
The deranged despot has already doubled down on claims Ukraine carried out the Crocus City Hall attack, raging that those behind the shooting "hoped to sow panic and discord" in Russia.
But concerns are continuing to escalate over whether Putin may have orchestrated Friday's massacre as a ploy to bring back the death penalty to use against Ukrainians.
Russia expert Dr Yuri Felshtinsky told The Sun that the Crocus City Hall attack doesn't bear the marks of a true ISIS attack and it could've been an inside job.
Co-author of “Blowing up Russia" with Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Dr Yuri thinks Friday's ambush could give the Kremlin an excuse to pursue a sick agenda.
He told The Sun: "This terrorist act might be conducted by the Russian government in order to use it as an excuse to reinstall the death penalty.”
If it gives Russia the platform to reinstate a death penalty against extremist threats, Kyiv may face fresh hell after more than two years of brutal war.
In countless rambling speeches, especially over the last two years, Putin has described Ukrainians as terrorists.
And in a mafia state where law is essentially controlled by the whims of one ageing dictator, Dr Yuri said the death penalty would be rolled out particularly for charges of terrorism or extremism.
Meaning Ukrainians banged up in Russian kangaroo courts for such 'crimes' could be sent to their deaths.
Dr Yuri explained that Friday's slaughter didn't bear the hallmarks of a typical ISIS attack, from the planned escape route to the connection abroad.
“We know the official version that ISIS is behind it and there is a possibility that they are, except that this particular terrorist act doesn't look like a classical ISIS terrorist act.
“Usually people who conduct terrorist acts on behalf of ISIS, they do not try to escape."
He continued: “There are some other questionable issues. You actually cannot organise it from abroad... this had to be locals.
"The building itself is very complicated. It's a huge building."
And he said the reaction from Russia aroused "suspicion" when ageing despot Putin immediately pointed the finger at Ukraine.
Less than 24 hours after Friday's attack, a snarling Putin addressed Russia in a speech were he jumped on the opportunity to point fingers at Kyiv.
And despite ISIS-K claiming responsibility outright, Putin would only describe the killers as "radical Islamists" ordered by Kyiv to carry out the attack as an "act of intimidation".
Dr Yuri said: “Then, of course, we have general mistrust. We do not trust Putin. We do not trust the Russian government.
"This is obvious when they try to blame somebody, like Ukraine. This, you know, gives us additional suspicion."
Putin's cronies released horrifying footage of the four terror suspects being tortured - including one whose genitals were electrocuted and another who had his ear cut off and fed to him.
Dr Yuri describes this as the "new normal" for the torture of detainees in Russia as Putin wages a "permanent war" against Ukraine and the West.
The deliberate release of those sick videos demonstrates Russia's willingness to "cross all lines of humanity".
He explains that after this, Russia could use the attack as ammo to bring back an ultimate sentence, taking their levels of barbarism to new heights.
Especially with more than 4,000 Ukrainian prisoners still in Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian government.
“A result of this terrorist act, we will see the attempt of the Russian government to introduce the death penalty again.
RUSSIA is reeling after four terror suspects violently murdered 139 people in Friday's Crocus City Hall massacre in Moscow.
But despite Vladimir Putin's attempts to place the blame on Ukraine, it is a regional branch of the Islamic State terrorist group, ISIS-K, who have stepped forward and claimed accountability for the horror attack.
Who are ISIS-K?
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.
One of the most active regional affiliates of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018, with the Taliban and US forces inflicting heavy losses.
But it is feared that ISIS-K has been quietly recruiting and growing its numbers once more and is considered an ongoing threat by the US.
General Michael Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was quickly developing the ability to conduct "external operations" in Europe and Asia.
Friday's attack has seen Isis-K has take over from Chechen rebels as the perpetrators of the most serious attacks in Russia, including the bombing of the St Petersburg metro in 2017, which left 15 dead.
What attacks have the carried out?
ISIS-K has a history of attacks, including against mosques, inside and outside Afghanistan.
In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.
The group was also responsible for an attack on Kabul's international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic US evacuation from the country.
Isis-K has been behind a series of smaller-scale plots, including an attempt earlier this month to attack a synagogue in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.
Why would they attack Russia?
Jihadist terrorist movements have long posed a serious threat to Russia.
While the attack by ISIS-K in Russia on Friday was a dramatic escalation, experts said the group has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
The group is also believed to see Russia as equivalent to the US in its “hatred” for Islam.
"ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticising Putin in its propaganda," said Colin Clarke of Soufan Center, a New York-based research group.
Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K "sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims."
He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.
“This might be an indication that this terrorist act might be conducted by the Russian government in order to use it as an excuse to reinstall the death penalty.”
If they do this, he says the sentence would be used in cases of extremism, the same baseless charges they consistently level against Ukraine.
Dr Yuri points to Putin's lap dog Medvedev's repeated petitions for the government to bring back the death penalty.
Former Russian president Medvedev claims, like Putin, that "there are no Ukrainians, that all of them are Russians".
“So if you actually state that there is no Ukraine as a state, there are no Ukrainians as a nation, and all Ukrainians are Russians, then you could apply Russian laws to Ukrainians," Dr Yuri told The Sun.
They could then face trial under the fresh tightening of Putin's mafia-state laws.
Dr Yuri warned that the threat posed by Putin's iron grasp on power is not going anywhere anytime soon.
“We hope that something would change in Russia, that there might be people... opposed to the war, who would try to change the regime... at least to move Putin out of power and replace him with somebody else.
“This is not going to happen. And it's going to be worse and worse and worse and worse and worse until we stop them."
It seems the lunatic tyrant will even use the deaths of more than 130 people in his own country to further the sick agenda against Ukraine.
On Monday he raged that the shooting is linked to "a whole series of events by those that have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime."
Ukraine has been forced to repeatedly deny involvement in the attack, which saw four masked gunmen storm the busy concert hall and open fire.
The suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan, were charged on Sunday night with carrying out the terror attack after being hauled bloody and beaten into a Moscow court.
Dr Yuri believes that the very public brutality against those suspected terrorists may only be the beginning in a warped agenda designed to stretch Russia's courts even further outside the lines of international law.
ON FRIDAY 22nd March four masked gunmen stormed a busy concert hall in Moscow, shooting down hundreds of innocent civilians.
In the deadliest attack Russia has seen for over 20 years, the ISIS-K terrorists killed at least 139 people and wounded almost 200 more.
Around 6,000 people were believed to have been inside the venue watching Russian rock band Picnic when the attack began.
The gunmen began shooting civilians at point-blank range - through glass doors, turnstiles and then the concert hall itself, traumatised witnesses said.
They even set fire to the building in an attempt to prevent anyone getting out alive.
And devastating footage showed piles of bodies outside the blackened concert venue on the western edge of Moscow.
The bodies of whole families were found with dead mothers embracing their dead children, Russian media reported.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre and even released a picture apparently showing the four suspects posing next to the death cult's flag before storming the hall.
Russia's security service (FSB) launched a massive manhunt on Saturday to catch those responsible and detained 11 suspects, including the four men later hauled into court.
Twisted footage of their interrogations was later released online, showing one with his ear cut off and fed to him and another having his genitals electrocuted.
Overnight on Sunday they were dragged into a Moscow court to be sentenced, with grim pictures showing their bruised, bloody and unconscious faces in glass cages.
