Russia’s safety chief, citing no proof, blames Ukraine and U.S. in terror assault | EUROtoday

“We think the act was prepared by the radical Islamists, but of course, the Western special services have aided,” Bortnikov advised state media reporters, singling out the United States and Britain. “And the special services of Ukraine have a direct relation to this.”

Ukraine has strongly denied having any involvement within the assault. On March 7, the United States issued a warning of a possible terrorist assault in Russia, urging Americans there to keep away from mass gatherings, primarily based partially on intelligence reporting concerning the potential exercise inside Russia of the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-Okay), the Afghanistan and Pakistan arm of the militant group. Russian President Vladimir Putin, talking to the FSB board per week in the past, dismissed that warning as an try by the West to “destabilize Russia.”

The Islamic State has claimed duty for the assault, and Russia has charged 4 suspects, all residents of Tajikistan, with finishing up the rampage. Bortnikov on Tuesday confirmed that the United States had handed on details about a possible assault however stated it was “of general nature.”

“We responded to this information and took appropriate measures to prevent such things,” Bortnikov stated. “Unfortunately, the actions we carried out in relation to specific groups and specific individuals — this information was not confirmed at that time,” he added. He didn’t present any particulars about what teams the FSB focused.

According to Bortnikov, the FSB obtained studies that preparations have been underway for an assault in early March, earlier than Russia’s presidential election, which was held March 15 to 17, however “unfortunately, what happened later was already the next stage,” he stated.

The FSB beforehand had ISIS-Okay on its radar.

In October, Bortnikov warned a gathering of the heads of safety companies in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations, a gaggle of 10 former Soviet republics, that ISIS-Okay had greater than 6,500 members and will provoke assaults outdoors Afghanistan “in the near future.”

On Tuesday, nonetheless, Bortnikov accused the CIA and Britain’s MI6 intelligence company of interfering in Afghanistan with the purpose of making instability on the southern border of CIS international locations, together with Tajikistan. “The CIA and MI6 are restoring their intelligence presence in a number of key Afghan provinces,” Bortnikov stated.

“The main efforts are focused on forming a belt of instability along the CIS’s southern borders. To this end, fighters keep being recruited from international terrorist organizations operating in Iraq, Syria, and some other Asian and African countries and transferred to northern Afghanistan,” he stated.

After Russia’s army intervened in Syria starting in 2015 to help Bashar al-Assad in opposition to Islamist and opposition militias, together with the Islamic State, the FSB targeted on the menace Islamist extremists posed to Russia.

But lately, particularly since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the FSB’s principal effort has shifted to countering Ukrainian sabotage in opposition to Russian railways, pipelines and different infrastructure, in addition to arresting liberal, pro-democracy and antiwar activists.

As Bortnikov pointed fingers at Kyiv, Washington and London, a timeline of Friday’s assault offered to Putin by Alexander Bastrykin, the top of the Investigative Committee, Russia’s principal regulation enforcement physique, raised new questions concerning the regulation enforcement response because the assault unfolded.

Bastrykin, within the presentation to Putin on Monday night, stated the assault lasted 13 minutes. But Russian information retailers reported that specialised police models didn’t arrive till greater than an hour after the capturing began, after which waited greater than half-hour earlier than getting into the constructing. At that time, the attackers had lengthy escaped.

The attackers “arrived at the concert hall at 6:45 p.m.,” Bastrykin stated. “They waited for the spectators to gather. At 7:58 p.m. they opened fire on visitors on the street and entered the Crocus City Hall building.”

He continued: “They shot at everyone they saw, regardless of gender and age. Using gasoline they brought with them in plastic bottles, they set the room on fire. At 8:11 p.m., they left the building.”

SOBR and OMON, Russia’s particular police response models, have been alerted at 8:33 p.m. and arrived at 9:06 p.m., in response to the Tass state information company. A journalist with one other outlet, Ostorozhno Novosti, who was on the scene reported that officers started getting into the constructing at 9:39 p.m.

The nearest police division is positioned about one and a half miles from Crocus City Hall. A spokeswoman for Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry, Irina Volk, later dismissed complaints that police arrived too late, asserting that the primary group of officers was on the scene “five minutes after reports of shooting were received.”

Volk additionally urged the media to “only trust official statements.”

The description of the suspects’ getaway automobile — a 2007 white Renault — rapidly appeared on Telegram channels with hyperlinks to regulation enforcement. The 4 alleged attackers have been caught a number of hours later, some 250 miles from Moscow within the Bryansk area close to the border with Ukraine and Belarus.

The suspects have been in a position to drive roughly 5 hours regardless of Moscow being some of the closely surveilled cities on this planet with 221,000 closed-circuit cameras put in, lots of that are outfitted with facial recognition know-how.

Such cameras have been used extensively to trace down protesters opposing the invasion of Ukraine, for instance, or mourners of the late opposition chief Alexei Navalny.

Russian media geolocated movies displaying regulation enforcement arresting the suspects close to the village of Khatsun. At that location, the freeway forks, with one street to Ukraine and one other to Belarus. Putin on Saturday stated the suspects have been heading to Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally, injected extra confusion into Moscow’s model of occasions by saying that the perpetrators initially deliberate to cross into Belarus. Lukashenko’s remarks contradicted Putin’s assertion that Ukraine “had prepared an escape window” on the border.

“They understood that they couldn’t enter Belarus,” Lukashenko stated. “Therefore, they turned away and went to the Ukrainian-Russian section of the border.”

At a press briefing Tuesday, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was requested to clarify the Kremlin’s model of occasions — that radical Islamists had achieved the bidding of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who’s Jewish. Peskov stated the complete matter was below investigation however replied that Zelensky “is a peculiar Jew” who “in many ways shows sympathy to the nationalist spirit that permeated the leadership of the Kyiv regime.”

Russian officers have additionally positioned blame on the non-public safety firm that was defending Crocus City Hall, saying guards have been unarmed regardless that the corporate had an arsenal of weapons.

“This entire arsenal is stored in the building next door to Crocus, but the guards on duty did not carry,” stated Alexander Khinshtein, a member of parliament. “Their emergency response group is also based there; however, they did not go to the site after the terrorist attack.”

In addition to the 4 alleged shooters, Russia has charged three males with helping the attackers by offering transportation. Iam Islomov, the brother of Dilovar Islomov, one of many males, advised Russian outlet Verstka that his sibling “knows nothing about the attack” and had bought his automobile to a consumer who claimed it might be used as a taxi.

According to automobile registration information reviewed by The Washington Post, the automobile was bought earlier this yr and repainted white from darkish grey.

On Tuesday, Russia arraigned an eighth suspect, a citizen of Kyrgyzstan who rented an condominium to one of many gunmen. The suspect, Alisher Kasymov, stated that he posted an internet advert and denied having any data that his tenant had hyperlinks to radical Islamist teams.

Two of the alleged gunmen, Shamsidin Fariduni and Saidakram Rajabalizoda, briefly traveled to Turkey in late February and returned to Russia on March 2 on the identical flight, in response to a senior Turkish safety official who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate issues. The official stated he believed that “both individuals became radicalized in Russia given the short amount of time they spent” in Turkey.

According to brutal interrogation movies leaked on varied pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, Fariduni stated he was contacted on Telegram by “an assistant of an imam” a few month earlier than the assault and supplied the equal of about $5,000 to “kill people.”

Baza and 112, each Telegram channels linked to Russian regulation enforcement, printed {a photograph} of Fariduni allegedly inside Crocus City Hall on March 7. The 112 channel alleged that he was scouting the situation.

Kareem Fahim in Istanbul contributed to this report.