Ukrainian and Western spy agencies have recruited agents to carry out attacks inside Russia, Aleksandr Bortnikov has said
Ukrainian intelligence services were involved in the deadly terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow in March, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.
Aleksandr Bortnikov made the statement during a virtual meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) on Tuesday.
“The Ukrainian and Western intelligence services are expanding the circle of possible perpetrators, recruited to commit high-profile crimes inside Russia,” Bortikov said. Kiev and its foreign backers are also assisting “international terrorist organizations,” which train and provide equipment to those people, he added.
“A vivid example [of such activities] is the involvement of Ukrainian military intelligence in the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow that had been established by us,” the FSB chief stressed.
The main targets of recruitment by the Kiev’s and Western agencies are younger people and migrant workers, he said.
The attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue on March 22 claimed 145 lives and left over 550 injured. Four gunmen stormed the building ahead of a rock show, shooting everyone in sight before setting it on fire.
The suspected perpetrators – all citizens of Tajikistan – were detained shortly after the attack as they tried fleeing in a car towards the Ukrainian border. Almost a dozen of their accomplices have been arrested since then.
A terrorist organization known as Islamic State – Khorasan (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Moscow suggested that Kiev had used the Islamist group as a proxy. Ukraine has denied any involvement, while the West insisted that all evidence pointed to ISIS-K as the sole culprit.
June 11, 2024 at 03:07PM
RT