While the attack was claimed by Daesh, the Kremlin spokesperson refused on Monday to return to this claim, citing “the ongoing investigation”. A way of not denying Vladimir Putin who pointed out, without providing proof, Ukraine’s responsibility in the attack which left 137 dead on Friday in a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow.
Barely hours after the attack, Internet users were already broadcasting elements on social networks which showed, according to them, the involvement of Ukraine. These elements, however, do not prove it. So-called Ukrainian passports, license plate… 20 minutes verified these claims.
No, these Ukrainian passports do not belong to the attackers
A first passport belongs to a man who was wanted by the police in Ukraine in 2020. The second comes directly from the Russian Wikipedia page on Ukrainian passports. The third belongs to a Russian blogger who obtained Ukrainian citizenship in 2016, as reported by our Greek colleagues at Ellinika Hoaxes. As for the fourth identity document distributed on social networks, it is a specimen of a Ukrainian identity card, which was published in 2020 on a Ukrainian site.
None of these four documents can be linked to the men who targeted the concert hall on Friday. However, they were broadcast on X to demonstrate, wrongly, that the attackers had Ukrainian nationality.
A license plate that is not Ukrainian
Among the false information circulating shortly after the attack, several publications on social networks claim that a van was near Crocus City Hall, the scene of the shooting, allegedly had a Ukrainian license plate.
The images shared on social networks have in common that they bear a “Shot” logo at the top right as well as a transparent watermark in the shape of a target. These markers are those of the Russian Telegram channel “Shot”, followed by more than a million people. We can thus find the source of the video on the channel in a publication posted Friday at 8:50 p.m. (French time) accompanied by the caption: “A suspicious white minibus is checked in the Crocus parking lot. The car could have been booby-trapped and terrorists could have gotten on board. »
In the video posted on the Telegram channel, the left part of the plate is blurred, which does not allow us to distinguish the flag as well as the acronym giving information on the country where the vehicle is registered.
However, and despite what several Internet users quickly asserted, the model of the plate does not correspond to Ukrainian plates, ending with two letters. The van’s license plate, which ends with “I X-6”, also corresponds to Belarusian plates, ending with two letters and a number, as the investigator pointed out in open sources Olivier Alexander.
Ukraine recruited the attackers through its embassy in Tajikistan? This screenshot doesn’t prove it
This is a supposed “last minute revelation” which has been viewed 670,000 times on X: the attackers were allegedly recruited via the Ukrainian embassy in Tajikistan. Pro-Russian accounts are disseminating a supposed screenshot of the diplomatic representation’s website, which allegedly shows that “a few weeks before the carnage, a call for applications for killers was openly published on the website of the Ukrainian embassy in Tajikistan.”
This screenshot actually shows a call to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. We did not find any trace of it on the embassy website. The website mentioned in the screenshot links to an older version of Legion recruiting, suggesting that the screenshot, if it exists, is old.
ISIS has already attacked Israel
It’s not just Ukraine that is being targeted by disinformation. To suggest that Daesh could have attacked other targets, numerous publications, sometimes viral, assert that the Islamic State (IS) would never have attacked Israel.
Although attacks claimed by ISIS in Israel are not numerous, it is false to assert that ISIS does not target Israel. In March 2022, for example, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack that left two dead in Hadera, a town in the north of the country, as reported last year in an article in Times of Israel. The attack was claimed by ISIS via its propaganda organ Amaq. In June 2017, ISIS had already claimed responsibility for an attack in the country, when three attackers identified as Palestinians opened fire on police officers in Jerusalem, fatally wounding a policewoman. Daesh initially claimed responsibility for this attack, before being denied by Hamas, arguing that the three men were from its ranks.
Daesh fighters never raise their left index finger?
Another one popular theory on social networks claims that the photo showing the three attackers in front of the Islamic State flag is not authentic. In fact, three men raise their left index fingers, contrary to the usual practice of jihadist fighters, who raise their right index fingers.
It is true that raising the index finger to the sky has become a popular gesture among fighters in photos released by ISIS for several years. As one researcher reminded 20 minutes in this article, this gesture “is a gesture of affirmation of faith, not a politicized, militarized gesture as it has become with groups like the Islamic State”.
While it is true that the original gesture is made with the right index finger, it is not uncommon for Daesh fighters to pose with their left index finger in the air. This is particularly what BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh noted, with supporting photos. It should also be remembered that these photos were published by the Islamic State itself, via its Amaq propaganda agency.
As long as the investigation is ongoing, the Kremlin will not comment on Daesh’s claim, Russian authorities said on Monday. Four suspects, at least one of whom is of Tajik nationality, were placed in pre-trial detention on Monday.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also “categorically rejected” the Russian accusations. kyiv considers these accusations “as a provocation planned by the Kremlin to fuel anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Russian society”.