The head of the Russian security services (FSB) on Tuesday accused Ukraine and the West of having facilitated the attack near Moscow, claimed by the armed group Islamic State (IS), with Russia insisting on a link between kyiv and the alleged attackers.
The Ukrainian authorities, supported by Washington, have repeatedly said that they had nothing to do with this terrorist attack which left 139 dead, the deadliest in twenty years in Russia and the worst claimed by the IS group on the European soil.
“We believe that the action was prepared both by radical Islamists themselves and, of course, facilitated by Western secret services, and that the Ukrainian secret services themselves are directly involved,” Alexander Bortnikov said. , cited by Russian media.
He also affirmed that the alleged attackers, arrested on Saturday, were “expected” in Ukraine to be welcomed “as heroes”.
Asked if the United States, the United Kingdom and Ukraine were involved, Alexander Bortnikov replied: “I think that is the case. »
However, he added that “the sponsor” had “not yet been identified”.
At the same time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, contradicted this account, saying the attackers had initially tried to flee to his country.
“They were unable to enter Belarus. They saw this and so they changed route and went towards the Russian-Ukrainian border,” he said on Tuesday.
Earlier, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, asked by journalists whether kyiv or the IS group had orchestrated the attack, said: “Of course it’s Ukraine. »
“They changed route”
On Monday, Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time, three days after the events and the claim of the IS group, that the alleged attackers were “radical Islamists”, while pointing the finger at Ukraine.
Several individuals opened fire on Friday in the Crocus City Hall concert hall, in the suburbs of the Russian capital, before causing a huge deadly fire.
The IS group, which the Russians are fighting in Syria and the Sahel and which is active in the Russian Caucasus, claimed responsibility for this massacre on Friday, but its involvement was initially not commented on by the Russian authorities.
Russia, led by its president, affirmed that the alleged attackers intended to flee “to Ukraine”. The border between these two countries, which have been fighting each other militarily for two years, is however very difficult to cross.
“Who was waiting for them there? » he questioned, estimating that the bombings of kyiv on Russian territory and the terrorist attack in Moscow “are part of” the same “series” of events.
After Moscow’s accusations, the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Monday described his Russian counterpart as a “sick and cynical creature”, while one of his advisers, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, denounced the next day the “absurdities » Russian.
The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, for his part rejected Tuesday any help from Interpol, because the organization would insist on “the theory favorable to the West according to which the EI group would have committed the attack and Ukraine would have nothing to do with it.”
Eight suspects in custody
Russian authorities announced on Saturday the arrest of the four suspected attackers, who are from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia.
Three other suspects, one of whom has Russian nationality, were taken into custody on Monday.
An eighth person, from Kyrgyzstan, was placed in pre-trial detention on Tuesday, Russian justice announced.
During the hearing, this man claimed, according to the Ria Novosti agency, that he did not know the intentions of the individuals to whom he had rented an apartment after contact via a classified ads site.
The five former Soviet republics in the region, led by Tajikistan, saw thousands of their citizens leave for Syria or Iraq in the 2010s.
Furthermore, the FSB said on Tuesday that a Russian national belonging to a group allied to Ukraine and who was planning an attack had been killed in the explosion of his bomb at the time of his arrest in the Samara (Volga) region. .
The intelligence services did not specify whether the explosion was deliberately set off or accidental.
The FSB assured that it had thus avoided a “terrorist act” that this member of the “Russian Volunteer Corps” organization, based in Ukraine and which fights Russian forces, is accused of having prepared against an aid collection point humanitarian.