While Vladimir Putin’s government blames Ukraine for the deadly attack in Moscow, the trail of the self-confessed assassins leads to the former Soviet republics. IS has had a new focus there for several years: Russia.
And suddenly terror is back in Russia: men armed with machine guns stormed the Crocus City Hall event center on Friday evening, shot civilians indiscriminately and set the building on fire. A “Ukrainian trace” is quickly spread in high-reach Telegram channels – up to Dmitry Medvedev, former President of Russia and now Deputy Head of the Security Council.
But as the night progresses, another suspicion is confirmed. In all likelihood, an offshoot of the Islamic State – the ISIS-K group – was behind the attack. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack on the Telegram channel of the Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Islamic State.