A terrorist organization which was already in the sights of Paris. The branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) "involved" in the Moscow attack "had carried out several attempts in recent months" on French "soil", declared Monday March 25, Emmanuel Macron, after the lifting of the plan Vigipirate at its maximum level.
“We must guard against any instrumentalization or distortion, but be demanding and effective. It is in this spirit that we are moving forward and I hope that Russia will do the same,” said the French president upon his arrival in Guyana, then that Vladimir Putin pointed out Ukraine's responsibility.
“It would be both cynical and counterproductive for Russia itself and the security of its nationals to use this context to try to turn it against Ukraine,” he insisted to the press.
The IS group claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday evening at a concert hall near Moscow. Its Afghan branch, the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K) group, is the prime suspect for global terrorism experts.
ISIS-K, which emerged in eastern Afghanistan in 2014, seeks to establish a caliphate that would span Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
“Increased cooperation” proposed to Russia
According to Emmanuel Macron, the French intelligence services believe that this entity “fomented this attack and carried it out”.
The executive took note, during a meeting on Sunday evening at the Élysée, that “this particular group which is involved, it seems, in this attack, had carried out several attempts on our own soil in recent months” , explained the head of state. “And therefore, given its ramifications and its intentions, as a precautionary measure but with credible and solid elements”, he “decided to raise the posture of Vigipirate”, which had been lowered in January.
Emmanuel Macron assured that France had “proposed to the Russian services, as to our partners in the region, increased cooperation”, “taking into account the information available to our services and the elements which can be useful to the Russians”.
Asked to say whether he could speak about it himself directly with his Russian counterpart, he replied that contacts would be made at "technical and ministerial" level "initially". “We will see how the context evolves and whether the coming days or weeks justify it,” he added.
With AFP and Reuters
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