The US warning to Russia even included Crocus Hall as a possible ISIS target. Russians complain information was ‘too vague’

Russia’s spy chief, Sergei Naryshkin, has admitted that the Putin regime received information and warnings from the US about a possible terrorist attack, but says they were “too vague”, rexclaims The Moscow Times. On the other hand, the Americans say that the information was concrete and that they also indicated the Crocus concert hall as a possible target of the terrorists, writes The Washington Post.

“The Federal Security Service (FSB, the successor to the KGB – ed.) has received information from American services that such a thing is, unfortunately, possible.

But as our Russian colleagues also said, the information was too vague and did not allow us to properly identify those who committed this horrible crime,” said Serghei Narîşkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). from Russia.

And the head of the FSB admitted last week that he had received “general information” from the US about a possible attack.

Private and public warnings from the United States, as well as a report from Russia’s ally Iran warning the Kremlin of a “large-scale terrorist operation” raised questions about the Russians’ failure to prevent this monstrous attack.

At the same time, Russian officials, including dictator Putin, took advantage of the tragedy to blame Ukraine, in the usual cynical manner of the Kremlin regime.

On Monday, SVR’s press service accused the Biden administration of “covering up” Volodymyr Zelensky and “exaggerating” the role of the ISIS-K terrorist organization responsible for the attack. The Afghan group claimed the attack a few hours later.

Earlier, Putin had said that US warnings about the attack were “efforts to intimidate and destabilize society”.

Written US warnings even included Crocus Hall as a possible terrorist target

More than two weeks before the terrorist attack in Moscow, the United States government gave Russian officials clear information about a possible attack, directly referring to the Crocus concert hall itself as a potential target, The Washington Post reveals, citing US officials with information on the subject.

The increased level of specificity conveyed in these warnings underscores the confidence that US intelligence had in their intelligence that ISIS was preparing for an attack that would result in the deaths of large numbers of civilians.

The US intelligence directly contradicts the claims of the Russians, who acknowledged that the Americans had briefed them but complained that the warnings were “too vague”.

Putin publicly dismissed the US warnings just three days before the bloody attack on March 22, calling them “outright blackmail” and “efforts to intimidate and destabilize our society”.

Although the U.S. frequently shares information about possible terrorist attacks with target countries, based on a U.S. government policy called the “duty to warn,” it is not common for geopolitical adversaries to be warned, as doing so could compromise the way in which US services obtain information.

This time, however, the information indicated that Americans in Russia were also threatened by this attack. On March 7, the US embassy publicly announced that it was “monitoring reports indicating imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts” and warned its citizens to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.

Despite the lack of heightened security measures at Crocus, there are indications that the Russian regime, at least initially, took the American warning seriously.

A day after Russia received the tip, the FSB announced it had foiled an ISIS attack on a synagogue in Moscow.

A Crocus employee who was in charge of wardrobe on the night of the attack said staff at Crocus had been informed of the possibility of a terrorist attack shortly after the American warnings on March 7.

“We were warned that a terrorist attack might follow and we were instructed what to do and where to take people,” Islam Khalilov said in an online interview.

Despite this information, it remains unclear why Russia refused to tighten security at Crocus and allowed the terrorist attack to unfold. Some U.S. officials speculated that, seeing the threat not materialize immediately after March 7, the Russians let their guard down, assuming the U.S. information was incorrect.

Editor: Adrian Dumitru

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