People were posting videos while the attack was happening. Where are you getting this information about "jamming" from? Nearby traffic distribution nodes were likely overloaded which resulted in degraded performance of Telegram and VK services. This is something to be expected when thousands or even millions of people start sending messages all at once, trying to figure out what's happening to their friends and family.

An excerpt from the article:

In October 2002, Chechen militants took about 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces stormed the building and 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters died, most of them from effects of narcotic gas Russian forces use to subdue the attackers.

It's worth recalling when support for the Chechen war was low, Putin initiated a campaign of apartment building bombings in 1999.

That was the immediate memory. It's interesting how much truth will be figured out in this current case.

Days after Putin's reelection? Sounds very suspicious indeed.

A lot has been said about Call of Duty MWII, but if your theory is correct then we'll have to say that, of all things, its plot was prescient. And i'm not ready for that

I don't think so. The US actually warned about imminent terror attacks by ISIS in Moscow a few weeks ago.

Not seeing anything yet but it can be hard to get accurate news reporting from a country that kills subversive journalists and is in a war. I think most are assuming it's either an internal or external paramilitary group related to the war in Ukraine, or domestic terrorists related to the recent elections, I think targeting a concert is more likely the latter but we'll see which group takes responsibility if any.

PSA. It's Ukraine, just Ukraine. Not "The Ukraine"

IS has apparently claimed responsibility via telegram

Russia is not against doing false flag terrorist operations. That is how Putin came to power.

This would have the opposite effect for Ukraine. It would cause Russians to actually rally around the flag and be more pro war. The Ukrainian strategy has been to just kill Russian combatants and hope they kill enough that Russians themselves start protesting the war on the home front.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was Putin’s doing. He has a history of committing violence against him own people and blaming others.

The problem is that, this helps Putin. If we assume he has no regard for human life, then this is a massive opportunity for him. He's made the most out of opportunities like this one in the past.

This attack on innocent lives is a profound tragedy as it is. I wish I could spend more time dwelling on the plight of the victims but my brain won't stop panicking about all the ways Putin can exploit this situation to ruin even more lives.

It's why I couldn't shake the idea that this might be a false flag operation. It's why I can't deny the prospect that perhaps Russian security services didn't do all they could to stop this before it occurred.

My thoughts to the victims and those close to them.

Didn't a lot of western countries warn their citizens to not attend any public gatherings in Moscow a couple of weeks ago due to an imminent Isis attack?

It could be. It certainly tracks with the separatists' move into guerilla tactics later in the second Chechen war.

Out of any time for them to start striking again, this would be it. Russia is stretched thin in manpower and supplies, and their attention is very focused on Ukraine and the West. Their ability to dump resources into the southern Caucus to tamp down a potential Chechen War #3 is definitely going to be limited. And coupled with the completion of Putin's sham election, it sends a very strong message against Russia's outward facade of "unity".

They might have beards, hard to tell from the footage I've seen.

May be Islamic terrorism or a bad ol' fashioned Russian false flag. I doubt Ukrainians or Ukrainian supporting people would do a random terror shooting, they like to be more targeted and the shooting was at random people. There was a foiled group of Islamic terrorists arrested earlier this month, maybe another group.

We will have to see what Russia says.

CNN is reporting 40 dead, but that the shooting was at a shopping center outside the concert hall.

In the video I wish I hadn't just watched it looked more like that to me.