Home World Putin "could have been behind deadly concert attack"

Putin "could have been behind deadly concert attack"


VLADIMIR Putin has linked Ukraine to the worst terror attack on Russian soil for 20 years.

But experts said that Moscow was just as likely as Islamic State of carrying out the deadly theatre attack which killed 133 people on Friday.

More than 6,000 Russians had flocked to the Crocus City Hall complex in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, for a concert by rock group Picnic.

The venue once hosted a Miss Universe contest held by Donald Trump, and a performance by comedian Eddie Izzard in 2013.

Survivors of Friday’s attack told how camouflage-clad gunmen carrying automatic rifles entered the venue several minutes before the performance started.

They opened fire while still on the concourse which surrounded the auditorium, before setting off explosives which engulfed the building in flames,

One report said 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase, adding: “Mothers were found embracing their children.”

Another woman told how she was buying ice cream with her 11-year-old daughter when someone shouted to get down on the floor.

“We rushed to the children, lay down and started setting up barricades from tables and chairs, and several wounded people came running to us,” she said.

Some of the attackers were said to have fled in a Renault car that was spotted by police about 200 miles southwest of Moscow. Police reportedly found a pistol, a magazine for an assault rifle, and passports from Tajikistan.

Russia has arrested 11 people, including four suspected gunmen, with the FSB security service claiming they had contacts in Ukraine.

In a television address, newly re-elected Putin blamed “international terrorism” for what he called a barbaric act of terrorism.

“We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists who prepared this atrocity, this strike against our people,” he said.

He then accused Ukraine of being involved, adding: “They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”

Kyiv has staunchly denied any role in the attack.

However, the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) terror group has taken credit.

US and UK intelligence agencies had been gathering evidence that IS-K could mount a mass casualty attack, and recently issued a warning urging people to stay away from large gatherings.

“ISKP recently indicated their intention to attack Russia, and they have the capability to stage attacks in major cities like Moscow,” said Alexander Lord, lead Eurasia analyst at Sibylline.

“Raids have taken place resulting, say the FSB, in the arrest of Central Asia individuals linked to ISKP. And recently the FSB claim to have raided a small IS-KP and supposedly neutralised a plan to attack a synagogue.”

He added: “There is the motivation of Russia’s involvement in Syria, but Russia also has a significant Muslim minority which has also increased the interest for IS.”

But Moscow could have planned it.

In 1999 Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s Prime Minster, was behind a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300 and injuring more than 1,000.

The handling of the blasts by Putin boosted his popularity and helped him secure the presidency a few months later. The crisis it engendered led to the Second Chechen War.

“It is entirely feasible that this is a false-flag operation engineered by Moscow to justify its next, horrid, stage of the special military action in Ukraine,’ said Keir Giles, of the Chatham House think tank.

“Acts like these solidify support for Putin and provide an excuse for the next move on Ukraine,’ said Giles. “This may include the declaration of total war and mobilisation of more troops – which Putin has been hesitant to do.”

A third possibility was that the attacks were carried out by Russian extremists within the intelligence services or military, in a bid to pressure Putin to take a tougher stance on Ukraine.

“It is very difficult to carry out an attack like this in Russia without Russian assistance,’ said Dr Yuri Felshtinsky, co-author of the bestseller ‘Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within’ with slain ex-KGB Col Alexander Litvinenko.

“It is possible that Putin was behind this attack. But it is also possible that it was carried out by a group of extremists within the Russian military or intelligence services who believe that Moscow is still sleeping and that the war should be conducted in a more aggressive way.”

Last night former Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev, now Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, suppoted the claims that Ukraine was involved in the attack, adding on the Telegram social media platform: “If it is established that these are terrorists affiliated with the Kyiv regime, there is no other way to deal with them and their ideological inspirers.All of them must be found and ruthlessly exterminated as terrorists, including officials of the state that committed this atrocity. Death for Death.”

Dr Felshtinsky added: “Whatever steps Putin takes as a result of these attacks, will tell us what the motivation was.”

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