“The investigation continues, but it can already be said with certainty that Ukrainian military intelligence is directly implicated in the attack.” That was the claim FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov made on Friday. No evidence has been offered for it. Kyiv called the allegation absurd.
Bortnikov’s main announcement concerned arrests. Russian authorities, he said, now hold more than 20 people over the March 22 assault on Crocus City Hall near Moscow, where more than 140 people died. Four attackers opened fire on concertgoers and then set the building ablaze. It was the deadliest attack in Russia in 20 years.
First FSB link to ISKP
For the first time, the FSB head tied the Islamic State to the planning. Ria Novosti quoted him saying that “preparations, the financing, the attack and the retreat of the terrorists were coordinated via the internet by members of Khorasan Province.” That group, known as ISKP or ISIS-K, is an ISIL branch that operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
ISIL has claimed responsibility more than once. Russia has nonetheless kept trying to connect Ukraine and the West to the killings.
Bortnikov kept that thread alive. According to his account, once the shooting ended the gunmen were told to head for the Ukrainian border, where “a ‘window’ had been prepared for them” on the other side.
Kyiv rejects the charge
Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, answered on national television on Thursday. “Russian propaganda did not forget about the Crocus story,” he said. Moscow, in his words, “will continue trying to promote the absurd point about Ukraine’s alleged complicity even though it can’t stand up to any criticism and it’s completely illogical.”
Who is in custody
The detainees include the four men suspected of carrying out the shooting. All are citizens of Tajikistan. A court extended their detention last week to August 22, and no trial date has been fixed.
The American warning
Washington has said it warned Moscow, both publicly and privately, in early March that an armed group was preparing to hit a concert hall in the Russian capital. After the killings, unnamed US intelligence officials told American media they had named Crocus City Hall specifically as ISIL’s target. Russia, they said, brushed the warnings aside.
Only three days before the attack, President Vladimir Putin accused Washington of “blackmail” and of trying to “intimidate” Russians.
