The director of Russia’s top security agency, on Tuesday (Mar 26) said that he believed that Ukraine, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, were involved in the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near the Russian capital city of Moscow on Friday (Mar 22).
Meanwhile, a Russian court remanded an eighth suspect in custody over his alleged involvement in the mass shooting at a Moscow concert hall, which claimed the lives of at least 139 people and left 182 others wounded.
Allegations by Russia’s FSB chief
Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), said they believe that the terrorist attack was “prepared by both the Islamist radicals themselves and was facilitated by Western special services.”
WATCH | Moscow Terror Attack: Russia’s Putin says ‘radical Islamists’ behind attack
This comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the first time since the attack, acknowledged the involvement of “radical Islamists,” while reasserting his claims that Ukraine likely played a role in the shootout.
The Russian president continues to blame Ukraine despite the Islamic State claiming responsibility for the attack. Similarly, Bortnikov said “special services” of Ukraine are “directly related to this” claiming that Kyiv helped prepare Islamist radicals at an undisclosed location in the Middle East.
Russian reporters also asked the FSB chief if he thought Ukraine’s allies in the West, the US and the UK, were involved in the attack. “We think that’s the case. In any case, we are now talking about the texture that we have. This is general information,” said Bortnikov, in response, as quoted by Reuters.
Ukrainian officials, including the president, have repeatedly denied any link to Friday’s attack and dismissed Russian accusations as lies.
The US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson had previously said that Washington had shared intelligence with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow.
The FSB chief, when asked about the information supplied by the US, on Tuesday said it was not always very concrete, reported Reuters.
The United States and France say intelligence suggests the group was indeed behind the attack.
French President Emmanuel Macron, on Monday, said the current information available “indicates indeed that it was an entity of the Islamic State that instigated this attack.”
He also said that it would be “counterproductive” for Russia “to use this context to try and turn it against Ukraine.”
Eighth suspect remanded in custody
On Tuesday, a Russian court remanded in custody Kyrgyzstan-born Alisher Kasimov for his suspected involvement in Friday’s mass shooting and sent investigators to Tajikistan to question the families of four men charged for allegedly carrying out the attack.
Moscow has previously said that four suspected gunmen have confessed. However, the suspects showed signs of injuries when they appeared in court raising concerns that they had been tortured.
Russia’s commissioner for human rights Tatyana Moskalkova said that the detention of suspects should be carried out in accordance with the law, reported news agency TASS, and called it “absolutely unacceptable to use torture on detainees and defendants.”
In court, Kasimov, who has been accused of providing accommodation to the four Tajik men who allegedly carried out the attack, showed no visible signs of injury.
So far, Russian authorities have detained 11 people, including four suspected gunmen, who had travelled to the Bryansk region which is about 340 kilometres southwest of Moscow and were supposedly trying to slip into Ukraine to escape.
(With inputs from agencies)
