Top Russian official Nikolai Patrushev has said that “Ukrainian special services” were behind the deadly attack at the concert hall near Moscow, state media reported on Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin and other senior officers previously made the unfounded accusation that “Ukrainian nationalists” were involved in the attack, but what is new is that the trail would lead back to special services. Patrushev also said that Kyiv is “completely under the control of the US” and that terrorist organizations such as IS were “created by Washington.”
The US has always said Islamic State militants were solely responsible. The American government had already shared information with Russian officers more than two weeks before the attack in the concert hall, it became clear shortly after the shooting. Moscow said that it could not intervene because the warning would have been “far too general”. But the warning would have been very detailed, it was reported The Washington Post Tuesday, citing an anonymous source: the US reportedly specified the Crocus City Hall concert hall as a target.
The US usually shares information about possible terrorist attacks, even for a geopolitical rival such as Russia, according to its own ‘duty to warn’. However, it is unusual to give information about specific targets to an opponent, officials and experts say The Washington Post. There is a risk that the US will reveal how it obtained such intelligence, risking surveillance activities or human sources.
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