DISINFO: There is a Ukrainian link in terrorist attack at Crocus concert hall
SUMMARY
Director of the FSB, Bortnikov, stated that initial data obtained from those detained in connection with the terrorist attack at Crocus confirms a Ukrainian link. The terrorists who attacked Crocus City Hall were intended to be greeted as heroes in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative depicting Ukraine as a terrorist regime. The claim was made in connection with the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Moscow. By trying to link the Crocus terrorist attack to Ukraine and other countries supporting it such as the US and UK, pro-Kremlin media are trying to stoke support and gain legitimacy for its ongoing illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv strongly denied any involvement in the assault on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, and the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility.
US officials have intelligence that the Islamic State group's Afghan affiliate IS-Khorasan is responsible for the Moscow attack. “ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
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”.
President Putin acknowledged late on 25 March that Islamists had committed the attack.
See similar cases: the West encouraged the creation of the Islamic State, who are its mercenaries; the West is supporting terrorists to encircle Russia; the US is recruiting ISIS terrorists to fight in Ukraine; ISIS claiming responsibility for Moscow attack looks like a fake, Anti-Russian actors using neo-Nazis in Kyiv may be involved in Crocus attack, Kyiv may be involved in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.