Attack in Moscow: Putin denied the threat and now his media hide the responsibility of ISIS

@ElentirENG ES 3·23·2024 · 7:01 0

This Friday, armed men murdered dozens of people at a Moscow concert hall and set the venue on fire with gasoline.

A tense scene in the Kremlin that reveals the type of political regime that Russia has
The strange attack on a Mil Mi-8 helicopter in the Russian-occupied part of Moldova

Ukraine denies any relationship and ISIS claims responsibility for the attack

Ukraine has officially denied any connection with these eventsISIS terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack. United States has indicated that it has intelligence information that confirms the authorship of that attack by ISIS, information that had already been published last night by media outlets around the world. world, with exceptions.

Russian state media hides ISIS responsibility

Russian state propaganda media RIA Novosti, Russia Today (RT), Sputnik News and Tass have hidden the responsibility of ISIS. This morning, while the news was going around the world, those media controlled by the Kremlin hid from the Russians the claim of the attack by that Islamist terrorist group.

On Twitter, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, issued the slogan: "The thing about ISIS is false" and added: "Forbidden anywhere and everywhere". That is to say, the regime prohibits speaking about the authorship of ISIS and whoever dares to publish it must face the consequences: let us remember that in Russia there is no freedom of the press and it is the Kremlin that dictates what What should be said and what not.

The US warned Russia of the risk of terrorist attacks

In this case, Russia not only withheld information from its citizens, but also irresponsibly denied the threat. Last night, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, noted: "Earlier this month, the U.S. government had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow – potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts – which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory to Americans in Russia." Watson added: "The U.S. government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy."

This information was no secret: On March 7, the US Embassy in Russia published an alert on its website with this text: "The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours." In that same advisory, the Embassy asked its Citizens avoid crowds. This information was published on Twitter by the State Department of USA and was spread by the media.

Putin disqualified the US warning and did not take any precautions

The Kremlin cannot claim ignorance about this, unless its intelligence services do not read the Western media or the warnings that come to them from the US. In fact, on March 19, Putin simply disqualified these warnings about a possible attack in Moscow. According to the official Russian Tass agency, Putin referred to "the recent provocative statements by various Western official structures about the possibility of terrorist attacks in Russia,", stating: "All this is It seems like absolute blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society."

After the warnings received, the Kremlin should have reinforced security at large events but it did not do so. It preferred to simply ignore the warnings issued by the US. One may wonder how we should characterize the attitude of the Russian dictator: negligence or premeditation? Last night, the Russian opposition media based in Latvia Meduza.io noted that Russian television broadcast a fake video attributing the attack to Ukraine. This same media outlet pointed out that the pro-government Russian newspaper Kommersant accused the Russian Volunteer Corps, a paramilitary unit based in Ukraine. That Corps has denied any involvement in the attack.

The role of the Kremlin in the terrorist attack

What we are seeing should not surprise anyone. The Kremlin has a long experience of lying and hiding the truth to keep Russia's citizens immersed in a political fiction in which the dictator Putin is a role model and Western democracies are the devil. Last night it had already become clear the possibility that Russia would blame Ukraine for this attack and use that false accusation to justify its criminal aggression against the Ukrainian people and a new mobilization of Russian citizens to send more cannon fodder in front. In this sense, it is worth starting to wonder what part the Kremlin itself may have in what happened.

Ukrainian intelligence points to Russian special services

Last night, in a statement issued on its Telegram channel, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) noted: "The terrorist attack in Moscow was a planned and deliberate provocation by the Russian special services at the behest of Putin. Its goal is to justify attacks even tougher measures against Ukraine and a total mobilization in Russia." The GUR added: "Putin has a lot of experience in organizing such terrorist attacks as a way to strengthen his own power, starting with blowing up houses on the Kashirskyi highway. As then, the action of intimidation by today's Russians will be the reason for the maximum "tightening of the screws" in Russia itself."

The GUR has noted that "the free movement of a group of militants with assault rifles through the center of Moscow, as well as many other indisputable evidence, indicate that the shooting in the "Crocus City Hall" was organized by the Russian special services."

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Photo: Mikhail Svetlov.