‘Are you sure it was Islamic State?’: Russia questions US on Moscow attack
Russia has cast doubt on the United States’ assertion that the Islamic State was behind the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow on March 23, which killed 133 people and injured hundreds others. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, which the US has publicly said it believed. However, Russia has questioned the claim, alleging that the US is attempting to bail Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out by mentioning the terror outfit.
In an article for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked the US if they are certain the attack was indeed carried out by the Islamic State.
“Attention, a question for the White House: Are you sure it was ISIS? Won’t you change your mind later?” Zakharova said in the article.
She pointed out that previously, the US’s intervention in middle eastern affairs has resulted in the rise, strengthening and institutionalisation of multiple radical and terrorist groups that, until today, remain active in the region.
“What is the logic, you may ask? Money and power. And, considering the international legal ban on direct interventions, it is also about sowing a ‘controlled chaos’ and reshaping world order by the hands of terrorists,” state-owned TASS news agency reported, quoting the spokeswoman.
Zakharova said the US was spreading a version of the “bogeyman” of Islamic State to cover its “wards” in Kyiv and reminded readers that Washington supported the “mujahideen” fighters who fought the Soviet-era Red Army in the 1980s.
