‘Duty to warn’ guided US advance warning of the Moscow attack. Adversaries don’t always listen

ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Mon, March 25, 2024 at 10:15 PM MDT·6 min read
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. warning to Russia couldn't have been plainer: Two weeks before the deadliest attack in Russia in years, Americans had publicly and privately advised President Vladimir Putin's government that “extremists” had “imminent plans” for just such slaughter.

The United States shared those advance intelligence indications under a tenet of the U.S. intelligence community called the “duty to warn," which obliges U.S. intelligence officials to lean toward sharing knowledge of a dire threat if conditions allow. That holds whether the targets are allies, adversaries or somewhere in between.

There's little sign Russia acted to try to head off Friday's attack at a concert hall on Moscow's edge, which killed more than 130 people. The Islamic State's affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility, and the U.S. said it has information backing up the extremist group's claim.

John Kirby, the Biden administration's national security spokesman, made clear that the warning shouldn't be seen as a breakthrough in U.S.-Russian relations or intelligence-sharing. “Yeah, look, there's not going to be security assistance with Russia and the United States,” Kirby told reporters Monday.

“We had a duty to warn them of information that we had, clearly that they didn't have. We did that," Kirby said.

Such warnings aren't always heeded — the United States has dropped the ball in the past on at least one Russian warning of extremist threats in the United States.

Here's a look at the duty to warn, how it came about, and how it can play out when American intelligence officers learn militants are poised to strike.

AHEAD OF THE ATTACK, A CLEAR US WARNING

On March 7, the U.S. government went public with a remarkably precise warning: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow was monitoring unspecified reports that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.” It warned U.S. citizens in Moscow to avoid big events over the next 48 hours.

U.S. officials said after the attack that they had shared the warning with Russian officials as well, under the duty to warn, but gave no details how.

Putin's public reaction was dismissive. Three days before the attack, he condemned what he called “provocative statements” from the West about possible attacks within Russia. Such warnings were aimed at intimidating Russians and destabilizing the country, he said.

DUTY TO WARN

The U.S. emphasis on sharing threat warnings increased after al-Qaeda's Aug. 7, 1998, attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. While dozens of U.S. citizens and government employees of different nationalities were killed, Kenyans made up the majority of the victims.

In 2015, then national intelligence director James Clapper formalized duty to warn in an official directive: The U.S. intelligence community bore “a responsibility to warn U.S. and non-U.S. persons of impending threats of intentional killing, serious bodily injury or kidnapping."

The order also spelled out occasions when intelligence officials could waive the duty to warn and stay silent despite looming danger. That includes when the target is an assassin or other extreme bad guy, or when disclosing the warning could “unduly endanger” U.S. personnel or their sources, those of intelligence partners among foreign governments, or their intelligence or defense operations.

SHARED WARNINGS AND THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

The intelligence community under former President Donald Trump faced accusations it had failed to warn U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi of a complex plot by Saudi officials that ended with his 2018 killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Media foundations say U.S. intelligence agencies did not respond to requests for any records showing whether they knew of the plot in advance.

Under the Biden administration, the sharing of threats to other governments has flourished, although there's no way to know of any threats that the U.S. intelligence community may have decided to let play out, without warning the targets.

Strategic U.S. dissemination of intelligence hit a high point in the months before Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. That's when the U.S. opted to declassify key intelligence on Russia's invasion plans to rally allies and Ukraine, and — unsuccessfully — to pressure Russia to call off its troops.

In a Foreign Affairs article this spring, CIA Director William Burns spoke of a growing awareness of the value of “intelligence diplomacy" — the strategic use of intelligence findings to bolster allies and confound adversaries.

SHARING ISN'T ALWAYS CARING

The duty to warn doesn't mean the other side has a duty to listen. That's especially so when the other side is an adversary.

In January, a U.S. official said, Americans had given a similar warning to Iranian officials ahead of bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, twin suicide bombings that killed 95 people.

It's not clear if the warning led to any additional security precautions at the event, a commemoration of the 2020 killing of an Iranian general by a U.S. drone strike.

In 2004, another adversary, the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, an anti-U.S. populist, was “suspicious and incredulous” when U.S. officials relayed a warning of an extremist plot to kill him, Stephen McFarland, a former U.S. diplomat in Central and South America, said Monday on X.

That kind of deep distrust has often kept threat warnings from landing as intended when it comes to Russia and the United States. That's true even with common dangers that both face, including the Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Historically, Russians can regard any U.S. attempt at counterintelligence cooperation against that kind of shared threat as naive, and look for any openings to use it for political gain or to undermine U.S. intelligence-gathering, Steven Hall, a longtime U.S. intelligence official in the former Soviet Union, wrote after his retirement in 2015.

In 2013, it was U.S. officials who, tragically, failed adequately to follow up on a Russian warning, a U.S. government review concluded later.

Concerned the man posed a threat to Russia as well, Russia's Federal Security Service in 2011 warned U.S. officials that a U.S. resident, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was an adherent of extremist groups. After U.S. officials concluded Tsarnaev was not a threat in the U.S., he and his younger brother planted bombs along the route of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds.

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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.


Before Moscow shooting Timeline

(Reuters) - Russia and Western countries have traded barbs over a deadly attack by gunmen that killed 137 people in a concert hall outside Moscow. The U.S. and other Western officials said they had intelligence linking it to an Islamic State branch, and pointed to a warning they gave before the attack. Moscow said the attack was tied to Kyiv, a charge Ukraine denied.

Here is a timeline of events before and after the attack:

MARCH 7

The U.S. embassy in Moscow warns that "extremists" had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow. Hours earlier, Russian security services said they had foiled a planned shooting at a synagogue by a cell from the Afghan arm of Islamic State.

The U.S. embassy urges all U.S. citizens to leave Russia immediately, said people should avoid concerts and crowds and be aware of their surroundings.

U.S. allies including Britain, Canada, South Korea and Latvia repeat the U.S. warning and tell their citizens not to travel to Russia.

MARCH 19

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismisses the "provocative statements by a number of official Western structures regarding potential terrorist attacks in Russia" in a Federal Service Security Board meeting, a Kremlin transcript shows. The actions "resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilise our society."

MARCH 22

Camouflage-clad gunmen open fire with automatic weapons at concertgoers near Moscow, killing 137 people in the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege.

Islamic State Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claims responsibility for the attack, the group's Amaq agency says on Telegram.

The U.S. States condemns the attack and says it has intelligence confirming the claim. It says it had warned Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding "duty to warn" policy.

MARCH 23

Putin says 11 people have been detained, including the four gunmen, but does not mention Islamic State and says gunmen were trying to escape to Ukraine.

Ukraine's military spy agency denies involvement and says Moscow's suggestion is "another lie from the Russian special services."

Washington issues an updated statement saying Islamic State bears "sole responsibility" for the attack and ruling out any Ukrainian involvement.

MARCH 24

Four suspects are charged with acts of terrorism in Moscow's Basmanny district court, all citizens of the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan, according to Moscow courts' official Telegram channel.

MARCH 25

France raises its security alert to its highest level, says it has intelligence linking the attack in Russia to an Islamic State branch that was also behind foiled attempts to attack France in recent months.

Russia's Foreign Ministry questions U.S. assertions that Islamic State was behind the attack, saying Washington is spreading a version of the "bogeyman" of Islamic State to cover its "wards" in Kyiv.

In Washington, the White House insists the attack was not linked to Ukraine, and rejects Russian claims as "just more Kremlin propaganda." White House spokesperson John Kirby says: "We are very vigilant in monitoring this group's activities and their planning, as best we can. ... It was because of the aggressive way which we have been monitoring ISIS that we were able to give the Russians a warning that, in fact, they were heading for a potential terrorist attack in the very near future."

Putin acknowledges that the attack was carried out by Islamic militants, but suggests it was also to the benefit of Ukraine and that Kyiv may have played a role.

(Writing by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and David Gregorio

Useful Idiots in America Are Helping to Spread Putin’s Lies About Moscow Terror Attack

Joseph Cirincione
Mon, March 25, 2024

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

U.S. Intelligence Community Directive 191 declares that any “intelligence element that collects or acquires credible and specific information indicating an impending threat of intentional killing…shall have a duty to warn the intended victim.”

Although designed primarily to warn U.S. citizens of danger, this directive has been applied liberally to foreign governments as well. This “duty to warn” is one reason the United States on March 7 warned the Russian government that “extremists” had “imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.” It cited the intelligence in a public warning to U.S. citizens to avoid large crowds in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t just ignore the warning, he denounced it. Three days before the attack he claimed the warnings were “provocative statements” and “outright blackmail” with the “intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”

Moscow Terror Suspects Plotted Other Massacres in Europe

After the attack, he and other Russian officials now say the U.S. warning was really a threat and the attack was the delivery of that threat. Ukraine is behind the assault, he says, adding details to support this fantasy, including the claim that Ukraine had prepared a “window” into their country to allow the terrorists to escape.

None of this is supported by any facts. All available information indicates that the horrendous March 22 attack on the Crocus City Hall that killed at least 137 people and burned the venue to the ground was carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan, or ISIS-K.

The terrorist group, a powerful remnant of the former ISIS “caliphate” now operating in and around Afghanistan, claimed credit for the attack. It was strikingly similar to the attack it carried out on Jan. 3, killing 95 Iranians as they gathered to commemorate the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in the Iranian city of Kerman. There, too, the U.S. had warned Iran. There, too, the leaders ignored the warning.

Over the weekend, ISIS released videos of the attack to support its claim of having masterminded the assault. The Guardian reports that the footage, published by the news agency of ISIS, Amaq, “showed gunmen filming themselves as they hunted victims in the lobby of the hall and fired from point-blank range, killing scores of people. At one point, one gunman tells another to ‘kill them and have no mercy.’”

U.S. officials are certain, as White House spokesman John Kirby said on Monday, “There was no linkage to Ukraine. This is just more Kremlin propaganda.” Other Western countries are confirming this conclusion from their own intelligence, with France announcing on Monday that ISIS was to blame and that the group had planned several attacks on French targets.

These spectacular, mass-casualty, civilian attacks are favored by ISIS, al Qaeda, and similar groups. There is no evidence whatsoever that Ukraine or the United States were involved.

While Ukraine has launched attacks against military and economic targets in Russia, it goes to great lengths to minimize any civilian casualties. Ukrainians are not terror bombing Russian cities, even as Russia terror bombs theirs. Not only does this cut against the grain of how democratic Ukraine wages its war of resistance, but Ukraine is smart enough to know that any such attack would undercut the support it gets from the West.

This may be exactly why American supporters of Putin and opponents of Ukraine are spreading Putin’s lies.

“If the Ukrainian government was behind the terrorist attack, as looks increasingly likely, the U.S. must renounce it, else we become complicit,” David Sacks, the former PayPal entrepreneur, posted on X. His feed is filled with other conspiracy theory promoters hysterically blaming Ukraine.

The anti-Ukraine MAGA movement is similarly claiming this was a Ukrainian/U.S. “false flag” operation.

Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec told Steve Bannon that the four captured terrorists now being tortured by Russia say they were “hired.” That they couldn’t be ISIS because they would have killed themselves. He ludicrously cites a recent statement by former Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that new U.S. aid would help Ukraine “accelerate the asymmetrical warfare that has been the most effective” and that “Putin faces some nasty surprises” as proof of Ukrainian involvement. “When Victoria Nuland promises some nasty surprises,” he claims, “you get stuff like this.”

All of these breathless revelations are spun with conjecture, guesswork, and outright fabrication. All of this aids Putin’s efforts to shift blame from his stunning intelligence failure. All of this helps Putin deflect from his inability to protect Russians from the true threats they face and force-feeds the ISIS attack into his existing paradigm.

To be sure, he wouldn’t be the first leader to do so. President George W. Bush ignored intelligence briefings in August 2001 entitled, '“Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” The Pentagon was still smoldering on September 11 when then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he was certain that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was behind the attack, not al Qaeda, and began planning to attack Iraq.

But Putin’s motives for shifting blame are clear. He wants to avoid responsibility, preserve his image as a strongman, and rally the nation around his leadership, not his failure. After all, it worked for Bush. It is working—for the moment—for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Putin is using the same playbook. He appears to be already intensifying his terror bombing of Ukraine and his state-controlled media are working overtime to spin the attack into a fear narrative starring Ukraine.

What is less clear is why any American would help him. All of us have a duty to warn of the danger represented by the American arm of Russia’s propaganda machine.

The Daily Beast.

U.S. Warned Of Possible Moscow Attack Before Concert Mass Shooting

Nina Golgowski
Mon, March 25, 2024 


The U.S. Embassy in Russia warned of “imminent plans” by extremists to carry out an attack in Moscow two weeks before Friday’s mass shooting and fire at a concert hall, but Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off the warning as “provocative” fearmongering from the West.

The Embassy advised U.S. citizens to avoid large gatherings over reports that extremists planned to target large events, including concerts. The warning, while issued March 7, was related to Friday night’s attack, The New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter.

“The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the alert read.

A woman lights candles at the fence next to the Crocus City Hall, on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, on Saturday. via Associated Press

Putin last week dismissed the alert as “outright blackmail,” however, saying it was meant to sow fear in Russian society.

“All these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society,” he said during a March 19 meeting, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Three days after that public dismissal, at least 137 people were killed and more than 180 others injured after several gunmen opened fire inside of a sold-out concert at Crocus City Hall. An affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre.

Russian officials have since tried to point blame for the attack on Ukraine, which it has been at war with since Putin’s invasion in early 2022.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting on measures taken after a massacre in the Crocus City Hall that killed more than 130 people. MIKHAIL METZEL via Getty Images

In a televised address over the weekend, Putin said four suspects captured after the attack were attempting to “move towards Ukraine where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”

According to the Times’ report, the U.S. Embassy’s earlier warning did not involve anything having to do with Ukrainian sabotage. The Times’ sources also noted that the State Department would not have used the word “extremists” when referring to an action ordered by Kyiv.

The Embassy’s warning also came several hours after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that it had thwarted an attack on a Moscow synagogue by a cell of the Islamic State, Reuters reported at the time.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied that his country was in any way involved in Friday’s massacre. U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has also said that there is no initial indication that Ukraine was involved in the attack.

The U.S. has advised citizens not to travel to Russia, issuing its highest Level-4 Travel Advisory.

Russia says suspects in Crocus concert hall attack detained as death toll rises to 137

Darya Tarasova, Anna Chernova, Tim Lister and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN
Mon, March 25, 2024 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish those behind a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall that has claimed 137 lives, after authorities said the four main suspects were caught near the border with Ukraine.

The four men appeared in court on Sunday, all showing visible bruising and injuries, and were charged with committing a terrorist act. All four are from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan and have been in Russia on either temporary or expired visas.

Friday’s assault on the Crocus City Hall was the deadliest terror attack on Russia’s capital in decades and comes less than a week after Putin secured victory in a stage-managed election, tightening his grip on the country he has ruled since the turn of the century.

The terror group ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly incident. A US official said Friday that Washington had no reason to doubt ISIS’ claim.

The development prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday to call for global cooperation against ISIS.

“ISIS is a terrorist organization that is operating in several parts of the world, and it is a very serious threat to us all … and we encourage all countries to work with each other in order to make sure that ISIS will not have the capacity to strike again anywhere else in the world,” Guterres said at a news conference.

Suspects in the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, from left: Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov. - Yulia Morozova/Reuters

Putin linked what he called a “barbaric terrorist attack” to Ukraine in a video statement released Saturday, as he expressed deep condolences and declared Sunday a national day of mourning.

The perpetrators, he said, had “tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border.”

Ukraine has denied any connection with the attack, and warned that Russia could use it as an excuse to ramp up its invasion.

On Sunday, the Russian Investigative Committee said the death toll in the Crocus City attack had risen to 137, adding that search work continues.

Earlier, the Committee said that four men suspected of carrying out the attack had been taken into custody on Friday night near Russia’s border with Ukraine.

“Special services and law enforcement agencies in the Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine, detained four suspects from among those who committed a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall,” the Committee said.

This was also reported by Russian state media agency RIA Novosti, which said that after the attack the criminals “intended to cross the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side, the FSB said.” The FSB — Russia’s security agency — did not specify the nature of the alleged contacts.

The Belarus ambassador to Russia, meanwhile, said that Belarusian special services helped Russia prevent “terrorists” from escaping across the border Friday night.

Emergency services personnel and police work at the scene of the gun attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk on March 23. - Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

The burned Crocus City Hall concert hall is pictured on Saturday. - Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

In his video address, Putin said that a total of 11 people had been detained and that the FSB and other agencies were working to establish “who provided them with transport, escape planned routes from the crime scene, prepared caches, caches of weapons and ammunition.”

“All perpetrators, organizers and instigators of this crime will suffer fair and inevitable punishment,” he added. “Whoever they are, whoever guides them. I repeat: we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this attack on Russia, on our people.”

Russian state media has said all of those detained are foreign citizens.

RIA Novosti posted the purported confession of one of the men apprehended in connection with the attack. One of the alleged attackers had mentioned returning to Russia from Turkey earlier this month, according to RIA, and one said he’d been promised half a million rubles (about $5,000) to carry out the attack.

CNN cannot independently verify the veracity of the report or the statements made by the alleged attacker, which may have been made under duress.

Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence, called Putin’s comments “completely false and absurd.”

“A full-scale war has been going on for more than two years. The border areas are saturated with enemy troops, special agents, and security forces,” he added. “Everyone in the world understands this, except perhaps the zombified Russian population.”
Horrific scenes after gunmen opened fire

Testimony emerged on social media detailing the horrific scenes as survivors recalled playing dead to escape from the concert hall.

Russian media reported the attackers “opened fire with automatic weapons” and “threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire.”

Video showed panic as the attack unfolded, with crowds of people huddling together, screaming and ducking behind cushioned seats as gunshots started echoing in the vast hall. One group sheltering next to a large wall of windows outside the concert venue were forced to break them to escape the gunfire, video obtained by CNN shows.

“(The assailants) were standing there at the exit,” one woman said on Instagram. “We got up and started walking. They saw us. Some of them ran back and started shooting at people. I fell on the floor and pretended I was dead. And the girl next to me was killed.

“Then the flames flared up and they closed the door. They probably couldn’t lock it. I lay breathing under the door. After some time, I crawled out, looked around, there was smoke everywhere, and I crawled towards the exit.”

Another woman who was inside the concert hall waiting for a performance to begin said on social media: “I saw people above running around, everyone was yelling, like, ‘Run!’ … We started running, and then the shooting began … The next thing I know we’re just falling down the aisle.

“When I got up I cracked my head on a seat. Then we’re just jumping over … when we were running, when we realized that here they were, three or five meters behind us … We were running and then jumping onto the stage, where there was an immediate exit,” she said.

A SWAT team was called to the area and more than 70 ambulance teams and doctors assisted victims.

Video footage from the Crocus City Hall showed the vast complex, which is home to a music hall and shopping center, on fire with smoke billowing into the air.

A person places flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of the Crocus City Hall. - Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

Specialists carry the body of a victim of the shooting attack. - Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

State media Russia 24 reported the roof of the venue partially collapsed. Rescuers continued to work at the scene on Saturday, the Russian Emergencies Ministries said, including in the auditorium where the ceiling had collapsed.

Firefighters were still working to extinguish fires on the roof, second and third floors of the Crocus City complex, according to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. Rescue teams had already cleared 41 cubic meters of rubble.

The carnage broke out before a concert by the band Picnic, according to Russia 24.

Picnic’s manager told state media that the performers were unharmed. Meanwhile, Shaman, the band’s singer, said he would pay for the funerals of the victims and treatment for those injured.
US had warned of potential attack

Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia said it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow,” including concerts. The embassy warned US citizens to avoid large gatherings. On Friday, following reports of the Crocus City Hall attack, it advised US citizens not to travel to Russia.

Starting in November, there has been a steady stream of intelligence that ISIS-K was determined to attack in Russia, according to two sources familiar with the information.

ISIS-K stands for ISIS-Khorasan, the terror organization’s affiliate that is active in Afghanistan and the surrounding region.

A law enforcement officer patrols the scene of the gun attack on Saturday. - Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US government had had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow — potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts — and that this is what prompted the State Department to issue the public advisory.

In a speech Tuesday, Putin blasted the American warnings as “provocative,” saying “these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”

There has been widespread international condemnation of the attack

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The four men charged with the massacre at a Moscow theater have been identified by authorities as citizens of Tajikistan, some of the thousands who migrate to Russia each year from the poorest of the former Soviet republics to scrape out marginal existences.

Along with grinding poverty, Tajikistan is rife with religious tensions. Hard-line Islamists were one of the main forces opposing the government in a 1990s civil war that devastated the country. The militants claiming responsibility for the Moscow massacre that killed 139 people — a branch of the Islamic State group in neighboring Afghanistan — reportedly recruit heavily from Tajikistan.

The four suspects who were arraigned in a Moscow court late Sunday on terrorism charges appeared to have been beaten or injured during their detention. One was wheeled in on a gurney clad only in a hospital gown.


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday described the suspects as “radical Islamists,” and he repeated his accusation that Ukraine might have played a role despite its strong denials.

Here is a look at the people, militant groups and political history connected to the Moscow attack:

THE SUSPECTS

The eldest defendant is Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32, who may have been living in Russia illegally. He was shown sitting in a glass cage in the courtroom with a black eye and bruised face.

Mirzoyev reportedly had obtained a three-month residency permit in the city of Novosibirsk, but it had expired. In video of his interrogation shared on Russian social media, he reportedly says he recently was living in a Moscow hostel with another of the suspects. The court said he is married and has four children, but it was unclear if he was employed.

Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, 30, is apparently unemployed. Registered as a resident in Russia, he could not remember in what city, according to Russian news reports. When he appeared in court, his head was awkwardly bandaged after Russian officers reportedly sawed off one of his ears.

Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, apparently had the most stable life of the four suspects. He was registered in Krasnogorsk, the Moscow suburb where the killings took place, and worked in a flooring factory. He reportedly told interrogators that he was offered 500,000 rubles (about $5,425) to carry out the attack — the equivalent of about 2.5 years of the average wage in Tajikistan.

Mukhammadsobir Fayzov, 19, was brought into the courtroom on a gurney, with a catheter attached and one eye injured or missing, and he appeared to fade in an out of consciousness. He had worked as an apprentice in a barbershop in the declining textile-mill city of Ivanovo, but reports said he left that job in November.

ISLAMIC TENSIONS IN TAJIKISTAN

As many as 1.5 million Tajik migrants are estimated to be in Russia after fleeing the poverty and unemployment that plague their landlocked, mountainous country. An array of mineral resources are present in Tajikistan, but the industry has been slow to develop because of belated foreign investment and poor geological data, among other factors.

Although its nearly 10 million people are overwhelmingly Muslim, tensions connected to Islam are common.

Islamists were a key opponent during a 1992-97 civil war in which the government killed as many as 150,000 people and devastated the economy. When the war ended, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon took steps to sharply curtail religious freedoms.

The government limited how many mosques could be built, prohibited women and children under 18 from attending mosques at all, and banned religious instruction outside the home for children. Critics say the limits encouraged people to turn to underground and radical Muslim factions via the internet.

Tajikistan has not made any official statement about the arrest of the four men suspected in the attack. But Rahmon was quoted by his government's press service as telling Putin in a phone call that “terrorists have neither nationality, nor a homeland, nor religion.”

ISLAMIC STATE VS. RUSSIA

Most attacks tied to Islamic extremists that afflicted Russia in the past quarter century were committed by Chechen separatists, such as the 2004 Beslan school seizure that killed more than 300 people — or were blamed on them, as in the 1999 apartment bombings that triggered the second Russia-Chechnya war.

But attacks that began in 2015 were claimed by or attributed to the Islamic State group. The group opposed Russia’s intervention in Syria, where Moscow sought to tip the balance in favor of President Bashar Assad’s forces.

The U.S. government has said it had intelligence confirming IS was responsible for the weekend attack in Moscow.

After IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in June 2014, thousands of men and women from around the world came to join the extremist group. Those included thousands from the former Soviet Union, among them hundreds from Tajikistan.

One of the most prominent figures to join IS was Gulmurod Khalimov, who was an officer with Tajikistan’s special forces before defecting and joining IS in Syria in 2015. In 2017, the Russian military said Khalimov was killed in a Russian airstrike in Syria.

IS claimed responsibility for the 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner that was bringing tourists home from the Egyptian resort Sharm al-Sheik. Two years later, it claimed to be behind the suicide bombing of a subway train in St. Petersburg that killed 15 people.

Two weeks before the Moscow theater massacre, Russian officials said they had wiped out members of an IS cell that was planning to attack a synagogue. Earlier in the month, it reported killing six IS fighters in the Ingushetia region adjacent to Chechnya.

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Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon

Russia says suspects in the Moscow terror

Tensions have also been growing between Russia and other former Soviet republics.

Russia's response to the terror attack on Friday in Moscow could drive a wedge between the country and one of its historical allies.

Gunmen opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall music venue, killing 137 people and injuring at least 145 more, Russian officials said.

ISIS-K, a branch of the Islamic State group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The US also said that the group was behind the attack, citing intelligence.

Russian state media said four suspects were identified as citizens of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan, a country in Central Asia, has deep historical ties with Russia and was once part of the Soviet Union. It's now part of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has long hoped would amount to the member countries' version of NATO.

The suggestion that the attackers were from Tajikistan could create new tensions between the country and Russia.

A makeshift memorial in front of Moscow's Crocus City Hall a day after the terrorist attack.STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

Tajikistan has already tried to distance itself from the attack.

Its foreign ministry said Saturday reports that its citizens were involved were "fake," The Moscow Times reported.

The country's interior ministry also said that two of the suspects initially named by Russian media were in Tajikistan at the time of the attack, per The Moscow Times.

Meanwhile, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon told Putin on Sunday that "terrorists have no nationality, no homeland and no religion," his office said.

While its ties with China and North Korea have perhaps grown, Russia has become more isolated on the world stage since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Even long-term allies with close cultural and economic ties, including Tajikistan, have revealed their frustrations.

In October 2022, Rahmon appeared to scold Putin to his face, demanding respect for his country.

According to Mail Online, Rahmon said Tajikistan had to "beg" Russia to attend a forum in Tajikistan. "We are never being treated like strategic partners! No offense, but we want to be respected!" he said.

Russia's relationships with other CSTO members are also increasingly strained, and experts on Russia and post-Soviet states previously told Business Insider that the alliance was crumbling.

Some of these experts said CSTO members looked at the invasion of Ukraine and believed that Russia was now unlikely to be able to protect them, and may even decide to attack them.

Earlier this year, Armenia's president said the country had suspended its participation with the CSTO after frequently criticizing it and Russia.

Regional leaders at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow in 2022.Contributor/Getty Images

The suspects in the attack being citizens of Tajikistan would not disprove ISIS involvement. Neither ISIS nor the US has commented on the nationality of the attackers, and ISIS has been recruiting in the country, The Guardian reported.

Russia is also going out of its way to point the finger at Ukrainian involvement. Putin said over the weekend that the assailants were fleeing to Ukraine after the attack and that Kyiv was helping them escape.

Ukraine denies any involvement in the attack.

Russia watchers predicted when the attack started that Putin would try to blame Ukraine so he could avoid responsibility and use it to galvanize support for his war.

Experts also said that ISIS likely took advantage of Russia's distraction with the conflict in Ukraine. Vera Mironova, an associate fellow at the Davis Center at Harvard University, told the Financial Times that ISIS saw it as relatively easy to hit Moscow as a result.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that Russia could have stopped the attack if it weren't attacking Ukraine.

"Those hundreds of thousands of Russians who are now killing on Ukrainian land would surely be enough to stop any terrorists," he said.

 Business Insider


Moscow court charges suspects in deadly concert attack

Reuters Videos
Updated Mon, March 25, 2024 


STORY: Russia on Sunday charged four men it says are responsible for gunning down scores of people at a concert outside Moscow days earlier-- the deadliest attack inside Russia in two decades.

Russian media previously identified the men as citizens of the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan living in Russia.

After unverified and brutal videos of the suspect's interrogations circulated on social media, courtroom images and video published by Russian media showed the suspects bandaged, swollen and bruised, with one man disoriented and struggling to keep his eyes open.

A Moscow court said the four suspects, charged with acts of terrorism, would be remanded in pre-trial custody until late May-- adding that three of the four had pleaded guilty to all charges.

The attack has prompted some Russian lawmakers to discuss whether the death penalty should be re-introduced.

Earlier in the day, Russia lowered flags to half-mast for a day of mourning and people continued to lay flowers in memory of those killed.

By Sunday night the death toll had risen to 137, with over 100 still in the hospital, and some in serious condition.

The Islamic militant group Islamic State has claimed responsibility, and released footage of the attack, the location of which Reuters was able to confirm.

Russian authorities said the gunmen were captured near the Ukrainian border after fleeing the concert venue on Friday.

And Putin, who has not yet publicly mentioned Islamic State in connection with the attack, said that some on "the Ukrainian side" had been prepared to spirit the gunmen across the border.

Ukraine has denied any role in the attack.

The U.S. has also denied Ukrainian involvement, saying that Islamic State bore sole responsibility.

The White House said the U.S. government shared information with Russia earlier this month about a planned attack in Moscow, and had issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia.

Russian officials have bristled at the U.S. comments on the attack, and say Russian investigators must be allowed to make their own findings.


Putin admits 'radical Islamists' were behind Moscow massacre, but still blames Ukraine

Dan Morrison, USA TODAY
Mon, March 25, 2024 

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Monday that “radical Islamists” were behind the massacre of nearly 140 people at a Moscow concert hall last Friday – but he still pointed to Ukraine as the hidden hand behind the terror attack.

"The question that arises is who benefits from this?" Putin said at the Kremlin during a video conference with leaders of Russia's security forces. "We know by whose hand the crime against Russia and its people was committed. But what is of interest to us is who ordered it."

Four attackers stormed the Crocus City Hall in Moscow last Friday night, raking gunfire across hundreds of people there to see the Soviet-era rock band Picnic, in the deadliest attack inside Russia in two decades. The death toll was raised to 139 on Monday, Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the state Investigative Committee, said.

Putin’s “radical Islamists” comment was his first acknowledgement of what the U.S. – and on Monday, France – have been saying since the slaughter took place: ISIS-Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based branch of the ultraviolent movement that sought to take over Syria and Iraq a decade ago, was behind the attack and had claimed responsibility.

France joins U.S. in blaming the Islamic State

"The information available to us…as well as to our main partners, indicates indeed that it was an entity of the Islamic State which instigated this attack," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters during a visit to South America. "This group also tried to commit several actions on our own soil."

Fighters loyal to the Islamic State terror group massacred 90 people at a Paris concert hall in November 2015 during a night of coordinated attacks across the city that killed 130.

On March 7, the U.S. embassy in Moscow warned of a possible replay of the Paris slaughter in a public advisory that it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts…”

More: Moscow concert attack survivors describe nightmare of fear and death

Two weeks later the killers struck.

"Some thought it was a kind of special effect of some sort," one witness, Anastasia Rodionova, told Reuters. "Then I saw with my own eyes how people were dropping and the automatic gun fire began."

More: In Tucker Carlson interview, Putin's plans for Ukraine appear to echo Trump's
Russia still accuses Ukraine; Zelenskyy lashes out at Putin and 'other scums'

In a televised address on Saturday, the Russian leader said 11 people had been detained, including the four gunmen. "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," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose troops are fighting to expel Russian forces more than two years into Moscow’s grinding, stalemated invasion, dismissed this suggestion. "What happened in Moscow yesterday is obvious, and Putin and other scums are trying to shift the blame to someone else," he fired back. "Their methods are always the same.”

More: What is ISIS-K, the group that attacked a Moscow concert hall?
Signs of torture

The four shooting suspects appeared in a Moscow court on Monday. Unverified videos of their interrogations circulated on social media. One suspect was shown with part of his ear cut off and stuffed into his mouth.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn't answer when a reporter asked him about treatment of the detainees.

Despite the American warning, Putin pointed the finger for Friday’s massacre at Kyiv.

Moscow concert shooting suspects escorted in front of Russian authorities

More: ISIS behind brutal Moscow terror attack, France tells Russia, as Kremlin points to Ukraine

America running interference, Putin says

“We know that the crime was perpetrated by radical Islamists,” he said. “The Islamic world itself has been fighting this ideology for centuries.”

Putin then accused the U.S. of “using different channels to try and convince its satellites and other countries of the world that, according to its intelligence, there is supposedly no sign of Kyiv’s involvement in the Moscow terrorist attack, that the deadly terrorist attack was perpetrated by followers of Islam, members of ISIS, an organization banned in Russia.”

"This atrocity," he said, ''may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime.”

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vladimir Putin blames ISIS and Ukraine for Moscow concert attack