Vladimir Putin 'losing control' as Russian mutiny fears surge after bloody ISIS-K attack

Vladimir Putin may be 'losing control' in Russia following a bloody ISIS attack. (Image: Getty)

Vladimir Putin could be "losing control" in Russia following a brutal terror attack by ISIS-K that killed at least 143 people.

Roger Boyes - who has authored books on how Adolf Hitler was able to remain in power - wrote in The Times that Vladimir Putin's political survival was based on him being "more protective of the motherland" than the last Soviet leader Mikail Gorbachev.

Speaking about the Ukraine war, he wrote: "Russian towns have by and large been sheltered from the nastiness. [Putin] was the Great Protector."

However, Boyes argues that image may have been shattered by a brutal ISIS attack in Moscow that saw gunmen mow down Russians in a music hall before lobbing explosives and setting the building ablaze.

He wrote: "[The Crocus City Hall attack] exposed at once the shakiness of his claim to be Russia's sword and shield, the unpreparedness of the security apparat for a new threat and the low credibility of the regime's war rhetoric."

He added: "The sequencing of events charts how Putin is losing control of the narrative."

Russia is reeling following the bloody ISIS attack. (Image: AP)

Following last Friday's attack, the suburban Moscow music hall where gunmen opened fire on concertgoers was a blackened, smoldering ruin and Russian authorities arrested four suspects. President Vladimir Putin claimed they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine.

Kyiv strongly denied any involvement in Friday’s assault on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, and the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility.

Putin did not mention ISIS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.

However, US intelligence officials confirmed the claim by the IS affiliate.

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“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

The US shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia, Watson said.

Putin said authorities detained a total of 11 people in the attack, which killed at least 143 people and wounded many more. He called it "a bloody, barbaric terrorist act."