Ekaterina Girnyk19:17, 03/26/24

Putin says Islamists are to blame, but at the same time continues to insist on Ukraine’s role.

Although Vladimir Putin continues to claim that Ukraine could have been involved in the terrorist attack in Moscow , which killed 139 people, the Russian leader’s inner circle does not agree with him, writes Bloomberg .

As the publication notes, according to four sources close to the Kremlin, officials were shocked by the inability of the security services to prevent the terrorist attack. The sources say almost no one they know in Russia’s political and business elite believes Ukraine was behind the attack.

“Putin attended discussions where officials agreed there was no connection between the attack and Kiev, but he was determined to use the tragedy to try to rally Russians behind the war in Ukraine,” Bloomberg writes.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, and Putin acknowledged the attack was carried out by Islamist militants, but told officials in televised comments that “we are interested in who ordered it.”

The United States is “trying to convince its satellites and other countries of the world that, according to their intelligence data, there are supposedly no Kyiv traces in the Moscow terrorist attack,” Putin said at a meeting with the heads of the special services.

As one expert notes, although Russian intelligence services know that ISIS is behind the attack, after Putin’s remarks they have no choice but to follow orders and prove the involvement of Ukraine or the West.

“Putin’s main allies are enthusiastically picking up his theme. This is raising speculation that he could use public anger over the tragedy to intensify the war against Ukraine, including possibly ordering a new mobilization of reservists into the army,” the newspaper writes.

What Putin and his minions say about the terrorist attack in Crocus

On March 23, Putin said that four terrorists were  detained on their way to Ukraine , where the Ukrainian side allegedly prepared a “window” for them to cross the border. On March 25, the dictator noted that it was necessary to answer the question “why did the terrorists try to go to Ukraine after committing a crime, who was waiting for them there.”

The director of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov,   gave his version of who was involved in the terrorist attack, saying that “the Ukrainian special services contributed to the terrorist attack, radical Islamists prepared it.”

Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev, in response to a direct question from journalists regarding who was behind the tragedy at Crocus, directly stated that Ukraine was behind it .

(C)UNIAN 2024