Aleksandr Bortnikov, director of the FSB (formerly the KGB), claims that the Ukrainian intelligence services (SBU) facilitated the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of Moscow, on 22 of March, and the arrested Islamists prepared it, but “it has not yet been identified who ordered it”. For Nikolai Patruyshev, secretary of the Security Council, it was, “of course, Ukraine”. Shortly thereafter, the Basmani District Court, which is handling the case, declared the search and capture of the head of the SBU, Vasil Maliuk.
After Vladimir Putin admitted responsibility for the Islamic State (without naming it) on Tuesday and still pointed the finger at Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked how it was possible for a Jew like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to allied with the Islamic State. Peskov replied that he is “a peculiar Jew”.
When will the Kremlin respond to the “Ukrainian track”, after Vladimir Putin admitted the authorship of the Islamic State without naming it? According to Oleksi Arestovitch, a former adviser to the disgraced Zelenski, the detainees “still have ears and fingers left for two or three interrogations”. Zelenski described Putin as a “cynical and sick beast”.
Another arrest was announced yesterday. The eighth, according to the Russian media, despite the fact that Aleksandr Bortnikov still spoke yesterday about 11 detainees, but without specifying who they were. Alixer Kassimov, 33, a Kyrgyz naturalized in Russia in 2014, father of three and owner of a cafe, allegedly rented an apartment, through an ad portal, to Tajik Khamsidin Fariduni and two other individuals who said who were going to work in construction. Fariduni is also the one who allegedly bought the white Renault from Dilovar Islomov, sentenced to two months in pre-trial detention with his brother and father. He is also the man apparently photographed days earlier in Crocus Hall, where he would have spoken to employees, and the same man who appears in a video being tortured with electricity on his genitals after being arrested.
But all these are only pieces of the puzzle. Yesterday, five days after the terrorist attack, the authorities had still not offered a sequential account of the events to the shocked Russian public. 139 people died and 182 were injured, 22 of whom were still serious yesterday (two children), and nine in critical condition.
The head of the Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrikin, said the attack lasted 13 minutes, between 7:58 p.m. and 8:11 p.m. local time. More than 5,000 people were evacuated from the site and 100 were rescued. The attackers were four and fled mixed in the crowd. They had used semi-automatic rifles and flammable liquid with which they caused a terrible fire that caused the dome of the roof to collapse.
The exact number of missing is unknown. The Ministry of Emergency Situations finished the work yesterday, having removed more than 900 cubic meters of debris. Officially, nothing else happened yesterday.
Several Russian media (some declared undesirable organizations) try to reconstruct the events and, among other issues, point out that the attackers left the car in the parking lot and broke in, shooting in a general access and then in the great lobby of the Crocus City Hall. Security was provided by a few (three?) sworn guards from the Crocus Profi company equipped only with batons and stun guns. They have not explained what became of them, despite the fact that some versions say that they went into hiding. Nor were explanations given about what action the police station adjacent to the building had or did not have. Apparently, the fire exit doors were closed, and there are doubts about the extinguishing and smoke evacuation system…
Finally, the Russian BBC channel reported that, according to its sources, two of the terrorists were killed. One in Briansk, during the arrest of the group, and another in the same auditorium, which would perhaps agree with an early version that said one was immobilized while changing the magazine of the weapon by a man with military experience, a certain Pavel , that one of these days he will be decorated.