Putin’s blame game

Putin is trying to spin Moscow tragedy. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up [here](. An attack like the one Moscow [just experienced]( would provoke national soul-searching about security failures in most countries. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin tried to [link it to his war in Ukraine](. That’s even as an offshoot of Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault by gunmen that killed at least 137 at a concert hall late Friday. Saidakrami Murodalii Rachabalizoda sits inside the defendant cage yesterday. Photographer: Tian Bing/China News Service/Getty Images The jihadist ISIS-K [has roots in Afghanistan]( and spreading influence in central Asia including Tajikistan, where four suspects arrested for the Moscow attack come from. Believed to be behind deadly bombings in Iran on Jan. 3, the US says it’s among Islamic State’s most lethal adherents. Putin didn’t mention the group in his only comments on the attack. Instead, he said FSB agents captured the four men on their way to Ukraine, where a “window” had been prepared for them to cross the border. State media is amplifying his message. That’s spurring speculation the Kremlin may seek to use the tragedy to step up the war, perhaps even by ordering a mass mobilization into the army. Many unanswered questions remain, including how the gunmen apparently managed to flee the scene with ease in a corner of Moscow notorious for Friday night traffic jams. Shocked Russians are recalling [an earlier era of insecurity](. In September 1999, just as Putin first emerged as Russia’s prime minister, more than 300 died in explosions in apartment buildings in Moscow and two other places that have never been adequately explained. Putin blamed Chechen separatists and waged a war to subdue the breakaway region that helped sweep him to the presidency on a wave of public approval. Muscovites haven’t seen an attack on this scale in the capital for more than two decades. They know they’re unlikely to get answers on the failings of Putin’s security services. Many worry that more bloodshed lies ahead, at home and in Ukraine.—[Tony Halpin]( WATCH: Russia held a national day of mourning after the terrorist attack that killed at least 137 people in Moscow. Source: Bloomberg Global Must Reads Israel would be making “a huge mistake” if it went ahead with a [major attack on the city of Rafah in Gaza](, US Vice President Kamala Harris said yesterday in comments that went beyond remarks by Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his trip to the region. French President Emmanuel Macron said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any forced transfer of people from Rafah would constitute “a war crime.” People inspect damage and recover items from their homes following Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza. Photographer: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images The US Supreme Court is again entering the fray over abortion issues with potentially far-reaching implications for reproductive rights and the November election. The high court, whose 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade transformed the legal and political landscape, tomorrow [will consider reducing access]( to a widely used abortion drug and next month will weigh allowing state bans even when an emergency room doctor believes ending a pregnancy would preserve the mother’s health. Donald Trump faces a deadline today to either post a bond to cover a $454 million civil fraud verdict or risk having New York state start the [process of seizing some of his assets](. The former US president also appears in one of his criminal cases when he could receive a trial date on charges that he falsified business records to disguise hush money payments to a porn star before the 2016 election. Inflows of more that $50 billion into Egypt in recent weeks had saved the economy, the government declared. Yet as Salma El Wardany reports, for many in Cairo the intervention lays bare just how far the biggest Arab nation has fallen. An economic crisis that has been building for years has now reached a [tipping point]( with war next door in Gaza and heightened threats to stability in the Middle East. The Philippines protested the “aggressive actions” by Chinese vessels in the South China Sea over the weekend, summoning Beijing’s envoy in Manila as [tensions escalate]( between the two nations over the disputed waters. China’s embassy today lodged representations with Manila over the “illegal trespassing of Philippine resupply vessels.” At least 10 of Senegal’s 19 presidential candidates [backed opposition leader]( Bassirou Diomaye Faye to become the West African nation’s next leader, as the authorities counted ballots from yesterday’s election. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida communicated [his intention to meet with Kim](, a month after she indicated a summit may be possible. Ireland’s Higher Education Minister Simon Harris is on course to [become the next prime minister]( in a matter of weeks after he was named leader of his Fine Gael party yesterday. Washington Dispatch Congress today begins a two-week recess after votes late last week that averted a government shutdown. When the House returns in April, Speaker Mike Johnson faces a potential vote for his ouster, six months after rebellious Republicans removed his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, [filed a “motion to vacate](” against Johnson on the same day that the chamber approved a spending plan that omitted cuts to domestic programs and new immigration restrictions demanded by Greene and other hardline conservatives. While she didn’t activate the motion by speaking about it on the House floor, she could demand a vote at any point while the House is in session, grounding all other business to a halt. Greene told reporters outside the Capitol that she wanted legislative business to continue, at least for now: “I’m not doing this to throw the House to chaos.” It remains unclear whether she’ll follow through, or that many fellow Republicans will go along and risk another leadership contest so close to an election. Yet such an act can take on a life of its own. In 2015, Mark Meadows, then a House Republican, filed a motion to vacate but never pushed it to a floor vote. Nevertheless, the speaker at the time, John Boehner, eventually resigned. One thing to watch today: New home sales for February are reported. [Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter]( for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 1 and 5 p.m. ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television. Chart of the Day As US-China geopolitical tensions fracture capital markets, Hong Kong IPOs have dried up as stock prices slump and [economic prospects wane](. President Xi Jinping’s push to step up data security and financial-market regulation has made it harder for Chinese companies to acquire assets or list overseas. And Finally It may be the home of golf, but some of Scotland’s internationally renowned links courses face an uncertain future due to coastal erosion. Clubs on Scotland’s eastern seaboard — where [the land is more sandy and prone to flooding than in the West]( — are now factoring in the cost of erosion as projections show storms are set to slam into the coast with increasing savagery, possibly triggered by climate change. But with money tight, James Ludden reports, smaller clubs are struggling to fix their coastal defenses. Fortrose & Rosemarkie Golf Club on the Chanonry Peninsula, which extends into the Moray Firth, Scotland. Photographer: David Cannon/David Cannon Collection/Getty Images. Thanks to the 41 people who answered the Friday quiz and congratulations to Ataf Rooknoodeen, who was the first to name Norway as the country whose government unveiled plans to remove a loophole used by its richest people leaving the country as it attempts to drag more tax revenue out of fleeing billionaires. 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