Russia persists and signs by insisting on a link between kyiv and the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack which left 139 dead near Moscow. Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Russian security services (FSB), accused Ukraine and the West on Tuesday March 26 of having facilitated this attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
Ukraine has repeatedly said that it had nothing to do with this terrorist attack, the deadliest in twenty years in Russia and the worst claimed by ISIS on European soil.
"We believe that the action was prepared both by radical Islamists themselves and, of course, facilitated by Western secret services and that the Ukrainian secret services themselves are directly involved," Alexander Bortnikov said, quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency.
He also assured that the alleged attackers, arrested on Saturday, were “expected” in Ukraine to be welcomed “as heroes”.
Asked about the involvement of the United States, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, Alexander Bortnikov replied: "I think that is the case."
“This is general information but there are already some elements,” he said.
Earlier, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, asked by journalists whether kyiv or ISIS had orchestrated the attack, replied: "Of course it's Ukraine."
07:02
Putin recognizes the involvement of “Islamists”
On Monday, Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time, three days after the events and the IS claim, that the alleged attackers were "Islamists", while pointing the finger at Ukraine.
Several individuals opened fire on Friday in the Crocus City Hall concert hall, in the suburbs of the Russian capital, before causing a huge fire.
The search operations carried out by the authorities in the rubble of this vast complex must in this regard conclude on Tuesday around 5:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT).
The IS, which Russia is fighting in Syria and the Sahel and which is active in the Russian Caucasus, claimed responsibility for this massacre on Friday but its involvement was initially not commented on by the Russian authorities.
Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, claims that the alleged attackers intended to flee "to Ukraine". The border between these two countries, which have been fighting each other militarily for two years, is however difficult to cross. “Who was waiting for them there?” he said.
A version contradicted Tuesday by the Belarusian president who claimed that the perpetrators of the attack had initially tried to flee to Belarus.
“They were unable to enter Belarus. They saw this and so they changed route and left towards the Russian-Ukrainian border,” declared Alexander Lukashenko, quoted in a press release from the Belarusian presidency.
Vladimir Putin also mentioned the Ukrainian bombings on Russian territory in response to Russian strikes in Ukraine to establish a link with the Crocus City Hall. “Bloody acts of intimidation like the terrorist attack in Moscow fit quite logically into this series,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky responded Monday by calling Vladimir Putin a “sick and cynical creature.” An advisor to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, denounced the next day the “absurdities” of the Russians.
Putin spoke to himself again today, which was broadcast on television. Again, he accused Ukraine. Sick, cynical creature.
In his mind, everyone is a terrorist except himself, despite the fact that he has been fed terror for two decades.
Putin is the largest window for terror.… pic.twitter.com/JBHuAnuvcM
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 25, 2024
The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, for his part rejected on Tuesday any help from Interpol because the organization would insist on "the theory favorable to the West according to which ISIS would have committed the attack and Ukraine 'wouldn't have anything to do with it.'
Four suspects from Tajikistan
Russian authorities announced on Saturday the arrest of the four suspected attackers, who are from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia.
Three other suspects were taken into custody on Monday. According to the Ria Novosti news agency, it concerns a father and two of his sons, one of whom, born in Tajikistan, has Russian nationality.
An eighth person, from Kyrgyzstan, another Central Asian state from the USSR, was placed in pre-trial detention on Tuesday, Russian justice announced.
During the hearing, this man claimed, according to Ria Novosti, that he did not know the intentions of the individuals to whom he had rented an apartment after contact via a classified ads site.
The five former Soviet republics in the region - led by Tajikistan - saw thousands of their citizens leave for Syria or Iraq in the 2010s.
Read alsoMoscow attack: Tajikistan, a breeding ground for jihadists in the heart of Central Asia
Furthermore, the FSB said on Tuesday that a Russian national belonging to a group allied to Ukraine had been killed in a bomb explosion during his arrest in the Samara (Volga) region, while he was planning an attack.
When he was apprehended, “the explosive device he had seized went off, inflicting fatal injuries,” the security services said, without specifying whether the explosion had been deliberately triggered or accidental.
The FSB assured that it had thus prevented a “terrorist act” that this man is accused of having prepared against a humanitarian aid collection point.
According to this source, the individual was a member of the Russian Volunteer Corps, an organization based in Ukraine fighting against Kremlin forces.
With AFP
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