Roving Periscope: Despite US tip-off, and IS claim, Russia suspects Ukraine’s hand behind terror blast!

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: The gulf of suspicion between Russia and the US is so deep that despite Washington tipping it off on March 7 about the impending March 23 terror attack, that killed nearly 140, and the reborn Islamic State (IS) outfit also claiming responsibility, Moscow suspects the West is trying to cover up the role of Ukraine in it.

By shifting the blame back to the US and Ukraine, the Kremlin is trying to ward off accusations at home that President Putin’s regime, within days of his winning a fifth term, failed to act in time despite forewarning. The March 23 terror attack has been the deadliest one in Putin’s 25 years of regime.

According to the media reports, Russia has cast doubt on the United States’ assertion that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was behind the Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow which killed at least 133 people and injured hundreds of others.
The IS promptly released ‘evidence’ of its involvement and claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, which the US publicly said it believed.

However, Russia questioned both the US warning and the ISIS claim, alleging that Washington is attempting to bail Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out by shifting the blame on the Islamist terror outfit.

In an article for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned the US if it is sure the attack was indeed carried out by the IS. “Attention, a question for the White House: Are you sure it was ISIS? Won’t you change your mind later?” she wrote.

Earlier, the US’s intervention in Middle Eastern affairs has resulted in the rise, strengthening, and institutionalization of multiple radical and terrorist groups that, until today, remain active in the region, she said.

“What is the logic, you may ask? Money and power. And, considering the international legal ban on direct interventions, it is also about sowing a ‘controlled chaos’ and reshaping world order by the hands of terrorists,” the state-owned TASS news agency quoted her as saying.
Zakharova accused the US of spreading a version of the “bogeyman” of the IS to cover its “wards” in Kyiv and reminded readers that Washington supported the “mujahideen” fighters who fought the Soviet-era Red Army in the 1980s.

She said that multiple factors, directly and indirectly, imply the US authorities were involved in sponsoring Ukrainian terrorism.
“The American political engineers cornered themselves with their tales that the Crocus City Hall attack was carried out by the ISIS terror group,” she noted.

“Hence Washington’s daily bailing out of its wards in Kyiv, and the attempt to cover itself and the Zelenskyy regime they created with the scarecrow of the outlawed ISIS,” the spokeswoman added.

The Islamic State’s news agency Amaq claimed responsibility for the attack on social media platform Telegram. The terror outfit also purportedly released a photo and bodycam footage of what it claimed were of the four gunmen who carried out the bloodbath on March 23 at the Crocus City Hall, a music venue and a shopping center.

The attack, which happened right before the Soviet-era rock band “Picnic” was supposed to come on stage and perform, was unleashed by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), an affiliate of ISIS primarily active in Afghanistan.

However, in his address to the nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not specify the IS in connection with the attack. He, instead, said the attackers were trying to flee to Ukraine, adding that some people on the Ukrainian side had prepared to let the gunmen cross the border from Russia. Ukraine has refuted these claims, with Zelenskyy accusing Putin of attempting to divert blame.

Soon after the attack, US intelligence officials said they had forewarned Russia on March 7 about a possible attack.

Four arrested suspects have been charged with carrying out the Moscow concert hall attack. Three of them pleaded guilty during a court appearance on Sunday.

All of them are citizens of Tajikistan and have been remanded in pre-trial custody until May 22.