Alexander Bortnikov, the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said on Tuesday that the United States, Britain, and Ukraine are behind last week's terror attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed 137 people and injured 182 more, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
"We believe that this is true," Bortnikov told reporters after being asked if the U.S., Britain, and Ukraine were responsible for the attack. "In any case, we are now talking about the factual information we have. This is general information, but they have a long record of this sort."
The FSB chief reportedly said he believes that Ukraine has been trying to prove to Western nations that it is capable.
"What is it expected to do to demonstrate its capability?" he asked. "It is expected to carry out sabotage and terrorist acts in the rear. This is what both the chiefs of Ukraine's special services and the British special services are aiming at. U.S. special services have repeatedly mentioned this, too."
Despite Russian accusations, Ukraine maintains that it was not involved in the attack, for which the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility.
The United States and other Western countries have said their intelligence indicates that ISIS-K, Islamic State's Afghanistan branch, was responsible.
According to Tass, Bortnikov said there is a large amount of publicly-available information "showing that the West and Ukraine are out to cause greater harm to our country."
"There have been drone strikes, strikes by uncrewed boats at sea, and incursions by groups of saboteurs and terrorist organizations into our territory," he said.
Two weeks before the deadliest attack in Russia in years, the United States had publicly and privately warned the Kremlin that "extremists" had "imminent plans" for such terrorism.
The intelligence indications gathered by the U.S. had been shared under the "duty to warn" tenet, which obliges U.S. intelligence officials to share knowledge of direct threats with both allies and adversaries if conditions allow.
Three days before the concert hall attack, Putin dismissed the warnings and publicly condemned what he called "provocative statements" from the West about the possibility of attacks within Russia.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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