DISINFO: Russia has evidence of Ukraine's involvement in the Crocus City terrorist attack
SUMMARY
Russian experts, contrary to America's firm assurances, have evidence of Ukraine's involvement in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. In addition to attempting to flee through the Ukrainian border, the attack is noted for its uncharacteristic nature for ISIS, as well as the blatant recruitment of mercenaries through the Ukrainian embassy in Tajikistan. The West's efforts to destabilize ahead of the elections are evident. However, it's worth noting that during these days, a warning appeared on the website of the US diplomatic mission openly advising American citizens against visiting concert halls.
RESPONSE
This disinformation claim is part of a wider campaign by Russian officials and media -including by Vladimir Putin himself- to baselessly blame Ukraine and Western countries for the attack.
The Islamic State have claimed responsibility for and shared video footage from the attacks, corroborating their claims of responsibility.
As terrorism experts pointed out, there is no question regarding the authenticity of the statement, made by Amaq, the official Islamic State propaganda media. The Islamic State released multiple evidence, including a gruesome video of the Moscow attack filmed by the attackers themselves, leaving little doubt about its responsibility.
The US was legally obliged to warn Moscow earlier this month of a possible attack in Russia aimed at large gatherings before issuing a public advisory to citizens in the country. As explained by ABC news.
"The United States shared those advance intelligence indications under a tenet of the U.S. intelligence community called the “duty to warn," which obliges U.S. intelligence officials to lean toward sharing knowledge of a dire threat if conditions allow. That holds whether the targets are allies, adversaries or somewhere in between".
The alert was dismissed as "provocative", "blackmail" and an "attempt to intimidate, destabilise our country" by Putin. He said: “I’ll remind you of recent, let’s say directly, provocative statements of certain official Western structures about potential terror attacks in Russia. All of this looks like obvious blackmail and an attempt to intimidate, destabilise our country”.
Iran had also warned Moscow a few days before of an imminent attack by ISIS based on information obtained from arrested ISIS terrorists in Iran.
Even Putin himself acknowledged late on 25 March that Islamists were committing the attack.
See similar disinformation cases claiming that Anti-Russian actors using neo-Nazis in Kyiv may be involved in Crocus attack, that Ukrainian official admitted Ukraine’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Crocus City, that ISIS claiming responsibility for Moscow attack looks like a fake, that Ukraine is resorting to terrorism by attacking nuclear sites in Russia, that Foreigners from terrorist organisations are fighting for Ukraine, that Kyiv uses the same methods as ISIS to recruit children and that The Kyiv regime is a global terrorist threat.