A number of Russian officials, on Tuesday (26/3), continued to say that Ukraine and the West had a role in the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall last week, even though Ukraine has firmly rejected accusations of involvement and an Islamic State-affiliated group has claimed responsibility for the attack. the.
Without providing any evidence, Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service or FSB, continued the same accusations made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, linking the attack to Ukraine, although Putin himself acknowledged that the suspects already detained were “Islamists radical”.
ISIS-affiliated groups claimed they carried out the attack. US intelligence also said they had information that confirmed the group was responsible for the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron said his country also had intelligence that pointed to “ISIS entities” as being responsible for the attack.
However, despite the signs that have pointed to ISIS, Putin has insisted on Ukraine's involvement in the attack. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the accusations, accusing Russian leaders of trying to demoralize their own troops currently fighting in Ukraine.
Bortnikov accused Western spy agencies of also being involved in the deadliest terror attack on Russian soil in two decades, although he also acknowledged receiving US warnings about the attack.
“We believe that radical Islamists prepared the attack, while Western intelligence helped them and Ukrainian intelligence had a direct role in the attack,” Bortnikov said, without providing further details.
He repeated Putin's claim that the four gunmen were trying to flee to Ukraine when they were captured, citing this as evidence of Ukraine's alleged involvement.
But that statement was undermined somewhat by the authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who said on Tuesday that the suspects had fled towards Ukraine out of fear of tight controls on the Belarusian border. (ns/rd)