America not only gave Russia advance warning of an impending terrorist attack by Islamic State, but also provided the target in Moscow and the street name. The fact that the Kremlin nevertheless failed to prevent the attack raises new questions.
More than two weeks before four terrorists from Tajikistan carried out a bloody attack on the outskirts of Moscow (killing 144 and wounding 551), US officials reportedly notified their Russian counterparts that Crocus City Hall, a beloved concert hall, was a potential target. The American newspaper The Washington Post reveals details on Wednesday about communications between Washington and Moscow, about what preceded the tragedy. According to the newspaper, the tips were quite detailed and undermine the Kremlin’s narrative that “US warnings were too vague to prevent the attack.”
According to anonymous sources, Crocus City Hall was identified as a potential target in America’s warning. American intelligence services knew which street the danger threatened, but only the time of the attack was unknown. The question then arises why in Moscow – after such a golden tip – no stronger measures were taken to prevent a massacre. The attack was claimed by a branch of the Islamic State, Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, as the Americans also knew. Theories about what went wrong here have been circulating for some time. The Kremlin has been more concerned in recent years with suppressing political street protests and eliminating critics of President Putin than with preventing terrorist attacks, several analysts and observers of Russian politics say. After the attack, the Kremlin first pointed to Ukraine as the organizer of the terror.
Anonymously
American officials who are familiar with the information that Washington shared with Moscow exceptionally wanted to tell their story anonymously, the authoritative newspaper reports The Washington Post. Normally these officials remain silent, mainly to protect their own sources. A Kremlin spokesman declined to respond to questions The Washington Post about the warning for Crocus City Hall. Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, reiterated to reporters in Moscow that the information shared by the United States was “too general and did not allow us to identify the perpetrators of this terrible crime.” Naryshkin also believed that Russia had “taken appropriate measures” to prevent an attack.
Images
However, that is not what the images show. Russian media have also reported in recent days that specialized police units arrived only more than an hour after the shooting started, and then waited outside the building for more than thirty minutes before entering; at that moment the perpetrators had already escaped. It is extra painful that President Putin himself cited the American warnings, three days before the attack on March 22. He then spoke of ‘outright blackmail’ and attempts to ‘intimidate and destabilize our society’.
Despite the security failure at Crocus City Hall, there are also indications that the Russian government appeared to take other warnings from Washington more seriously. Washington had also shared information about Islamic State plans to attack a synagogue in Moscow, a US official said. The day after Moscow received that information, Russia’s FSB security service announced that it had prevented an Islamic State attack on a synagogue in Moscow. So the warnings had arrived there. The question remains what went wrong at Crocus City Hall. Russia is still investigating the matter.
During President Donald Trump’s term, Putin twice thanked Americans for sharing information that helped prevent terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg, in 2017 and 2019.
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Tags: Tip Crocus City Hall America gave Russia specific information attack
