Russian spy chief makes bizarre claim US, UK and Ukraine were involved in Moscow attack
In a sign of the Kremlin’s increasing desperation to try and drag its invasion of Ukraine into the Moscow concert hall attack, the director of Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (FSB) has claimed Kyiv, the US and UK were behind it.
The bizarre claim comes despite a branch of the Isis terror group having said they were responsible for the attack, publishing graphic video of the shooting, and the US, France and a number of other nations saying they believed the jihadists were behind it. Russia says 139 people were killed when four armed men burst into the Crocus City Hall concert complex on Friday evening. Another 22 remain in a serious condition, including two children, officials say.
The claim becomes even less believable given that the US issued a warning to Russia of an imminent attack earlier this month.
But with the Kremlin wanting to deflect questions about how Russian security services failed to prevent the attack, and seeking justification for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, allies of the Russian president have sought to accuse Kyiv. Officials in Ukraine have been clear the claims are lies.
“We believe that the action was prepared by both the Islamist radicals themselves and was facilitated by Western special services,” Alexander Bortnikov, FSB director, said on television. “The special services of Ukraine are directly related to this,” Mr Bortnikov said.
When asked by Russian reporters if Ukraine and its allies, the United States and Britain, were involved in the attack on the concert hall, Mr Bortnikov said: “We think that’s the case. In any case, we are now talking about the texture that we have. This is general information.”
Mr Bortnikov, 72, who has served as head of the FSB since 2008, said Russia had yet to identify those who specifically ordered the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades, but said that retaliatory measures would be taken.
Since Putin sent forces into Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin has cast the West – and particularly the United States and Britain – as enemies whose decision to support Ukraine essentially outs them as parties to war with Russia.
Earlier, Russian news outlet SHOT published a video of an exchange in which a reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, whether it was “Isis or Ukraine?”
“Of course Ukraine,” Mr Patrushev replied. Asked about the remark later, he said there were “many” indications of Ukrainian involvement.
“The lies are officially spread by Patrushev, and after that by the head of the FSB Bortnikov,” Mykhailo Podolyak, senior presidential aide to Volodymyr Zelensky, said on X, formerly Twitter.
US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Washington earlier this month shared intelligence with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow. Mr Bortnikov said Russia was thankful for the warning but described it as very general.
“The information about preparations for terror attacks in large gatherings of people was of a general nature,” he said. “Of course, we reacted to that information and took corresponding measures to prevent such incidents.”
Putin had claimed over the weekend that Ukraine had prepared a “window” for the attackers to cross the border, but on Tuesday that was undermined by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko who said the gunmen tried initially to flee to Belarus,
