The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the Moscow attack, in which at least 137 people died, a few hours after the massacre on Friday at the Crocus City Hall concert hall. As proof, he has spread a chilling video through Telegram, recorded by the perpetrators of the massacre themselves, in which they appear with rifles and knives murdering several citizens in the Moscow auditorium. The images refute the official version defended by Vladimir Putin, who continues to accuse Ukraine and its allies of inducing this terrorist act. The Russian president has tried from the first moment to link Kiev and the West with this tragedy in an attempt to further justify the invasion of Ukraine. In fact, this Sunday the Kremlin increased the bombing. The video, as the United States defends, demonstrates that the Islamic State is the author of the attack.
In an interview with ABC, the North American Vice President, Kamala Harris, assured that nothing links Ukraine to what happened in Moscow. «What has happened is an act of terrorism. And no, there is no proof (of kyiv's intervention). In fact, what we know is that ISIS-K is actually, by all accounts, responsible,” she declared. The White House issued a statement calling the Islamic State “a common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.” The Biden Administration and the West fear that this attack will serve as an argument for Putin to increase war pressure on Ukraine.
The video released by ISIS lasts a minute and a half. Of horror. Four terrorists are seen with their faces blurred. You hear them: «Come, come quickly. Bring the machine gun. Kill them and show no mercy. One of the assailants shoots several people. In the background, the first flames of the fire can be seen. Another of the terrorists approaches a fallen man in the lobby of Crocus City Hall and stabs him in the neck several times. “The infidels will be defeated,” they say as they continue their slaughter. With this recording, the Islamic State makes it clear that it is responsible for an act that has shocked all of Russia.
While Moscow lowered its flags to half-mast and the entire country spent a day of national mourning in silence, the video of the four terrorists murdering them at point-blank range continued in the citizens' retinas. These images, in the opinion of 'The Washington Post', ruin Putin's efforts to present Russia “as a strong, united and resilient country.” That fragility, according to analysts consulted by the American newspaper, also became evident when the leader of Wagner's mercenaries, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, abandoned the Ukrainian front in June 2023 and directed his troops towards the Moscow capital.
Putin lights a candle for the deceased.
AFP
During his first terms, Putin already had to face several terrorist actions by Islamist groups, such as the one that caused more than 300 deaths in a school in Beslan in 2004. Then he also accused the West, the United States and Europe, of promoting terrorism. He now repeats tactics and points the finger of blame at Ukraine, the country that the Russian president considers “Nazi” and that receives weapons and financing from members of NATO and the European Union. In his address to the nation after Friday's attack, Vladimir Putin, without citing her by name, held Ukraine responsible for the massacre.
“People don't smile anymore”
On the streets of Moscow, “people no longer smile,” says Valentina Karenina, one of the citizens who lit candles for the deceased. Do you believe Putin? Many, yes, like Valeri Chernov, 52 years old. «This attack will make everyone understand that the front is not just in one part of Russia, but in the entire country. Some had not understood that there is a war and that all means are valid,” he warned. «Who is behind these crimes? The enemies of Russia and Putin, who seek to destabilize their power. It is really possible that it is Ukraine and the West. I don't rule out anything. “They may have used the Islamic State to divert attention,” he speculated.
News agencies do not have it easy to collect opinions on this matter. The majority of citizens choose silence. Only a few dare to criticize or disdain the official version, such as Vomik Aliev, a medical student with Muslim parents: “I believe that the extremists of the Islamic State are behind this attack. “Ukraine also commits terrorist acts, but this is more in line with what Islamists usually do.”
The Islamic State publishes an image of the four alleged perpetrators of the attack in Russia.
EFE
The US Administration, which has ruled out Ukraine's involvement in the attack, recalls that its embassy in the Russian capital had already warned about the imminence of such an act. A former senior US Intelligence official assures in 'The Washington Post' that Russia “always lets its guard down in matters of security, unless it is a high-level public event, such as the Olympic Games, or when the event intervenes.” “Putin.”
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