Russia continues to accuse Ukraine, against which it has been waging an armed offensive for more than two years, of being involved in the attack near Moscow, despite the jihadist claim. kyiv categorically denies any involvement. The Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday that it was able to recover data from the suspects’ mobile phones and found in one of them “photos of people camouflaged in uniform with a Ukrainian flag against a backdrop of destroyed houses”, as well as as the image of a “Ukrainian stamp with an obscene gesture”.
This reference may correspond to a very popular stamp in Ukraine showing the image of a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, sunk in April 2022. According to Russian investigators, “these data may indicate a link between the terrorist act and the special military operation” carried out by Moscow in Ukraine, using the euphemism imposed by the Kremlin to describe the assault in Ukraine.
Ukraine denies and denounces political manipulation
The Investigative Committee says it is “verifying the involvement of representatives of the Ukrainian special services and international Islamist terrorist organizations in the organization and financing of the terrorist act” in Moscow. On March 22, gunmen entered the Crocus City Hall concert hall near the capital before opening fire on the crowd and setting the building on fire. At least 144 people died and 360 were injured in this attack claimed by IS.
More than a dozen suspects were arrested, including the four alleged attackers, from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia where ISIS is active. If President Vladimir Putin admitted that the Moscow attack was committed by “radical Islamists”, the Russian authorities persist in seeing a Ukrainian lead, or even Western complicity. Ukraine, which firmly denies this, accuses Russia of wanting to “shift the blame” onto it.