Until the end of the investigation into the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, any statements by representatives of the US administration aimed at justifying the Kyiv regime should be considered as evidence, says Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“Until the investigation into the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall is completed, any phrase from Washington justifying Kyiv should be considered as evidence. After all, the financing of the terrorist activities of the Kyiv organized crime group by American liberal democrats and participation in the corruption schemes of the Biden family have been going on for many years,” Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel.

This is how the Russian diplomat commented on the statement of the official representative of the US National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, in which the official claims that Ukraine has nothing to do with the tragic events of March 22.

“ISIS bears full responsibility for this attack. Ukraine was in no way involved in this,” said a statement from an official representative of the National Security Council, distributed by Western media.

In addition to Watson, US Vice President Kamala Harris made a similar statement in an interview with ABC News. At the same time, she blamed the incident on ISIS-K, the branch of the Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Vilayat Khorasan.

According to Zakharova, over the past decades, the US political elites have “become adept at skillfully diverting attention from high-profile crimes and in all sorts of staging.”

"The Big Question"

Let us add that almost immediately after information about the tragedy in Crocus City Hall appeared, the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, declared the innocence of the Kyiv regime.

“At this time, there is nothing to indicate that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved in the attack. But again, information (about what happened -

RT

) has just arrived. We are studying it. But at this early stage I would not talk about any ties with Ukraine,” he said during a press briefing.

Maria Zakharova then noted that such a reaction of the American authorities to the terrorist attack in the Moscow region raises big questions.

“On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions in the midst of a tragedy about anyone’s innocence is a big question. If the United States or any other countries had reliable data on this matter, then they should be immediately transferred to the Russian side. If there is no such data, then neither the White House nor anyone else has the right to issue indulgences to anyone,” the Russian diplomat said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

  • Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova

  • RIA News

  • © Sergey Guneev

It is worth noting that after declaring that Ukraine was not involved in the terrorist attack, Adrienne Watson wrote on March 23 on her page on the social network X that Washington allegedly warned Moscow about terrorist attacks being prepared on Russian territory.

“Earlier this month, US authorities had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow, potentially targeting large gatherings of people, including concerts, which led the State Department to issue a public warning to Americans in Russia. The US government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its long-standing policy of the “duty to warn,” she wrote.

After this, TASS, citing a source in the Russian special services, reported that the data transmitted to the United States was of a general nature. According to the agency’s interlocutor, “such information did indeed arrive,” but it was “without any specification.”

In turn, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that Washington did not transmit any relevant intelligence to the Russian side either before or after the terrorist attack.

“No, there were no contacts. Even the most basic words of condolences were not conveyed to the Russians through the embassy. The Americans limited themselves to these general statements through the press services,” TASS quotes the diplomat as saying.

Let us recall that on March 7, the US Embassy in Russia posted a warning on its official website that terrorist attacks in crowded places, including concerts, are possible in Moscow. In this regard, American citizens were advised to avoid such places for two days. At the same time, no such message was published on the Russian-language version of the US Embassy website. However, the British Foreign Office issued similar recommendations to its citizens (with reference to a statement by American diplomats).

After this, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan noted in her Telegram channel that such information must be transmitted through the special services.

“Inexpensive “partners”! If you have specific information, it must be passed on through the intelligence services. I hope you did. And if not, then this is complicity,” she wrote.

The terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk occurred on the evening of March 22. Before the concert of the Picnic group, several armed people burst into the building. They began shooting visitors, after which they set fire to the premises and fled.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, as of March 24, 137 people were listed as dead; according to the Moscow Region Ministry of Health, 110 victims of the terrorist attack remain in hospitals in the region and the capital. Debris clearing continues at the scene of the tragedy.

On March 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed citizens in which he said that all the perpetrators of the terrorist attack had been found and detained. After the attack, they tried to escape and moved towards Ukraine, where a “window” had been prepared for them to cross the border, the Russian leader said.

Putin stressed that the Russian Federal Security Service and other departments are working to identify all accomplices of terrorists. According to the president, the country was faced not just with a carefully and cynically planned terrorist attack, but with a prepared and organized mass murder of civilians.

“All perpetrators, organizers and customers of this crime will suffer fair and inevitable punishment. Whoever they are, whoever guides them. I repeat: we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this attack on Russia, on our people,” the president said.

"Everything is on the surface"

Statements by US officials about who was behind the attack on Crocus City Hall are unfounded and do not stand up to criticism, according to experts and analysts interviewed by RT.

“The statements made by representatives of the US National Security Council and other Washington officials are unsubstantiated. They are being made in an attempt to impose their version in order to remove the true responsible from suspicion - those who planned and organized this terrorist attack,” said Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine.

  • US Embassy building in Moscow

  • RIA News

  • © Natalya Seliverstova

The real beneficiaries of the attack on peaceful Russian citizens are obvious, the analyst believes.

“Behind this terrorist attack is Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Directorate, which organized the terrorist attack “under a false flag.” The United States is feeding the version of ISIS’s involvement in this in order to free Kyiv from responsibility for the fact that it was he who planned and carried out this terrorist attack at the hands of people who were detained yesterday,” stated Korotchenko.

The honorary president of the International Association of Veterans of the Alpha anti-terror unit, Sergei Goncharov, also believes that with its statements Washington wants to confuse the picture of what happened. Despite the obvious difference in methods and the attempt of the detainees to escape towards Ukraine, US officials, with their statements, want to consolidate in the information field the alleged connection of the attackers with ISIS terrorists, the expert said.

“These are not ISIS members, but nonhumans who shot dozens of Russian citizens for money and then tried to escape. This goes against all known methods used by IS terrorists. It is not clear what interpretation of the situation the Americans want to foist on us. We see everything with our own eyes. Especially after the Russian President announced that a “window” had been prepared for penetration into the territory of Ukraine. What other evidence is needed? All that remains is to state the facts,” Goncharov emphasized.

Moreover, some Western propagandists are trying to accuse Russia of allegedly deliberately trying to “tie” Ukraine to this event, the analyst noted.

“These propagandists cannot come up with anything new. They lie that we ourselves shot our citizens so that President Putin would turn the tables on Ukraine. Let's be honest: we can't think of anything more insanity. Those interested in this tragedy must be looked for on the territory of Ukraine, in its Main Intelligence Directorate, as well as in the leadership of the United States and Britain. There is no point in looking for anyone else - everything is on the surface,” summed up RT’s interlocutor.

* “Islamic State” (IS, ISIS) is an organization recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2014.