As of: March 28, 2024, 1:25 p.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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Kremlin expert Anders Åslund believes Russia's involvement in the Moscow attack is possible. Other experts contradict his theory.
Moscow - As a result of the devastating attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday evening (March 22nd), the death toll has now risen to 139 and there are also more than 180 injured. An offshoot of the Islamic State group from Khorasan Province (ISPK) claimed responsibility for the attack, and the claim is generally considered credible.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of allowing the perpetrators to escape - although the Ukrainian leadership under President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately denied this. Putin has since corrected his statement, stating that “the crime was committed by radical Islamists.”
However, there are some experts who suspect that Russia itself was involved in the attack or at least did not use all its might to prevent it and thus ultimately accepted it. Possibly to justify future acts of war in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, they say. One of them is the Swedish economist Anders Åslund, who worked as an advisor to Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. In a post on the short message service X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, he listed ten pieces of evidence to support his theory.
Kremlin expert Åslund cites numerous suspicious indicators in the course of events
Åslund finds it suspicious that the four closest suspects were apparently able to drive through Moscow in a car armed with Kalashnikovs without coming under any control. According to the Swede, further evidence of Russian involvement was the fact that there were no security personnel in the Crocus City Hall - and the metal detectors at the hall entrance were switched off.
Furthermore, the perpetrators of the attack on the Crocus City Hall could have raged in the hall for a full 18 minutes until security forces arrived. This is despite the fact that, according to Åslund, both the Moscow police and the Russian secret service FSB operate bases in the immediate vicinity.
Åslund also finds it suspicious that the alleged perpetrators drove from the crime scene in the same car in which they had previously arrived there. According to Åslund, no terrorist would do something like that. Before arriving in the Russian capital, the terrorists drove around five hours through the country, not far from the Belarusian and Ukrainian borders. Nevertheless, they were not checked by Russian border officials along the entire route. This is tantamount to an impossibility, says Åslund.
According to Åslund, Putin's actions are not new - they are already known from the Chechen war
To support his suspicions, the former Yeltsin advisor also states at the end of his statement on X that such an approach by Putin would not be a completely new strategy for the Russian president. Åslund cites theories that Vladimir Putin has acted similarly in the past. In 1999, for example, he ordered the bombing of residential buildings in Chechnya to justify the Russian invasion of the region. The Chechen war ultimately helped Putin bring power in Russia completely under his control.
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However, there is currently no solid evidence for these suspicions, explains Russia expert Gerhard Mangott to Focus
.
Basically he believes the claims
Åslunds believes that it is not valid enough: “This is an unlikely explanatory scenario.” Although it “cannot be completely dismissed” that Russia itself could be behind the attack on Crocus City Hall, Mangott supports the Swedish economist's assumptions hardly considered resilient.
According to Mangott, the attack on Moscow also brings disadvantages for the Kremlin. Many people in Russia are rightly wondering why the government and secret service have not done more to prevent an attack of such magnitude. The fact that the US embassy in Moscow warned of possible attacks around two weeks ago, but Putin dismissed this as propaganda, also makes the Kremlin look bad.
According to the expert, Putin is under pressure: “They now have to cover up their failures with retaliatory actions.”
Another side effect of Friday evening's attack, according to expert Mangott, is that Putin is now under pressure to act: "They now have to cover up this failure with retaliatory actions," he explained to
Focus.
Swedish economist and former advisor Boris Yeltsin, Anders Åslund © IMAGO/Amanda Lindgren
All in all, based on current knowledge, it seems rather adventurous to suspect Russia itself as the initiator of the attack on Crocus City Hall, explains military expert Ralph D. Thiele to
Focus
. “Their own confession and confirmation from numerous international experts mark the Islamic State as the most likely perpetrator.” Nevertheless, one is well advised to wait for definitive verdicts, said Thiele.
Through the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia has created numerous new enemies. In addition, there are currently large quantities of weapons in circulation. Thiele points out that there are also groups in Russia that are prepared to engage in violent resistance. According to Thiele, these include Islamist groups as a result of the Russian military interventions in the regions of Chechnya and Dagestan.
(fh)