Russia knows who carried out the Crocus City Hall attack but is now investigating who gave the order, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, pointing to Ukraine as being a possible culprit.
“This attack was carried out by radical Islamists,” Putin said in the opening remarks of a video call with law enforcement officials.
The US and its allies are now trying to cover for their proxies in Kiev, insisting that Ukraine had nothing to do with the terrorist attack and that the party responsible was Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), the Russian president noted.
“But we know who carried out the attack. We want to know who ordered it.”
Russian law enforcement is currently looking into the perpetrators, who have been apprehended and brought before a judge. The investigation must be “professional, without any political bias,” Putin said.
More than 130 people were killed at the concert venue northwest of Moscow on Friday evening, when several armed men began shooting into the crowd and set the hall on fire. A terrorist group calling itself Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility.
Russian security services detained seven alleged perpetrators, who were driving towards Ukraine, as well as four of their suspected accomplices. The men were identified as ethnic Tajiks.
Putin noted that the fact the terrorists were headed for Ukraine posed questions that needed answering.
“Who was waiting for them there? It is clear that those who support the Kiev regime do not want to be accomplices and sponsors of terrorism. But a lot of questions remain,” he said.
The US and the EU swiftly insisted that Ukraine had nothing to do with the attack and that IS – a shadowy group allegedly operating in Afghanistan and Central Asia – was the sole culprit.