There is no evidence of Ukrainian involvement in the attack, say four people with close ties to the Kremlin. Putin attended talks where Russian officials agreed there was no connection to Kiev, but remains determined to use the tragedy to try to rally Russians behind the war in Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the talks , who spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is sensitive.
Kremlin officials were shocked by the failure of security services to prevent Friday’s gun attack on people attending a rock concert at the sprawling Crocus complex near Moscow, according to Bloomberg sources. Almost no one in Russia’s political and business elite that I know believes Ukraine was behind the attack, the four people said.
Putin has twice tried to link Ukraine to the Moscow atrocity – the worst in more than 20 years – even though the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack. The Russian president only acknowledged late Monday that Islamist militants had carried out the attack, but told Russian officials in his televised statement that “we are interested in who ordered this.”
The US “is trying to convince its satellites and other countries of the world that, according to the data of their intelligence services, there is supposed to be no trace of Kiev’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Moscow”, Putin said, during a meeting with the heads security services.
Ukraine has strongly denied any involvement and called the attack a false flag operation by the Kremlin, while US officials say the ISIS group is solely responsible for the attack.
“Ukraine, of course”
But Putin’s main allies enthusiastically took up his narrative. This has led to speculation that the Russian leader may take advantage of public anger over the tragedy to escalate the war against Ukraine, including by ordering a new mobilization of reservists to join the army.
“Ukraine, of course,” Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Tuesday when asked by reporters whether it was the Islamic State or Ukraine.
“Terrorists and those who are behind them – the bloody regime in Ukraine, Washington, Brussels – hope that through such terrorist attacks they will succeed in dividing our society”, Vyacheslav Volodin, the president of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, the Duma, also stated on Tuesday Of the state. “We must do everything to ensure that this unit is even stronger,” added Volodin.
Although radical Islamists carried out the attack, Ukrainian, American and British secret services contributed to it, Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB), told reporters on Tuesday, without providing evidence to support his claims. .
“The security services know that it was the Islamic State, but, according to Putin’s statements, they have no choice but to follow orders and prove that there was Ukrainian or Western involvement,” said expert Andrei Soldatov, who specializes in the domain of the Russian secret services.
The US issued a public warning on March 7 about the risk of an “imminent” terrorist attack in Moscow, including at events such as concerts, and said it had passed this information on to Russia. Putin dismissed this as an attempt to “destabilize our society” in a meeting with FSB officers three days before the Crocus attack.
Russian security services did not respond promptly to the US warning, and some officials could be dismissed as a result, two people with ties to Russian authorities said. The attack could prompt a reorganization of the leadership of the security agencies, the people added.
The tragedy has fueled calls from senior members of the Putin regime to end the moratorium on the death penalty, which has been in place since 1996. There are “active discussions” on the issue, although the Constitutional Court must decide, he said Volodin before Russian lawmakers on Tuesday, according to the Interfax news agency.
Four men, all from the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, were charged in a closed-door hearing late on Sunday with carrying out the attack on the Crocus hall and were remanded in custody until May 22, following a ruling by the Basmanny District Court from Moscow. Three other people were arrested on Monday and an eighth man was detained on Tuesday.
At the meeting with heads of security agencies, Putin questioned whether radical Islamists would attack Russia when the country “supports a fair solution” to the Middle East conflict, and asked how they could justify committing atrocities during the holy month of Ramadan. Putin also criticized the government in Kiev and its “Western patrons”.
The FSB detained the four suspects in Russia’s Bryansk region, claiming they were heading to Ukraine. While not directly accusing Ukrainian authorities of involvement in the attack, Putin said on Saturday that a “window” had been prepared for the attackers to cross the border.
However, even his closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, appeared to play down Putin’s claim that the suspects were trying to flee to Ukraine.
Lukashenko told reporters on Tuesday that the suspects first headed for Belarus until they saw that border security had been tightened, “so they turned around and went to Ukraine,” according to the official Belta news agency .
Photo: Profimedia Images
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