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The White House has pushed back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that Ukraine was linked to the recent Moscow attack by ISIS-K.
National security communications coordinator John Kirby denied these claims during a briefing with reporters. He said, “I want to just take a moment to respond to both the nonsense and the propaganda that we’ve been seeing coming from the Kremlin and the Russian government over the past few days about the ISIS terrorist attack on the concert hall, which sadly took the lives of more than 140 people. Contrary to public statements from Putin and others who have sought to deflect blame onto Ukraine, the United States, and everyone else who suits their political narratives, it’s abundantly clear that ISIS was solely responsible for the horrific terrorist attack in Moscow last week.” Kirby added, “ISIS bears full responsibility for the attack.”
This came after Putin speculated on the incident’s potential benefits to Ukraine, even as the attack unfolded, with gunmen firing upon civilians and igniting a music venue at Crocus City Hall. The US intelligence community has also corroborated the claim made by ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State group based in Afghanistan, as the sole group responsible for the attack on Moscow.
According to the US, it had provided information to Russian authorities multiple times about a potential attack in Moscow, though no action was taken. Kirby said, “We provide this information to Russia because the United States takes very seriously our duty to warn and never want to see innocent lives lost in terrorist attacks.” Despite this, three days before the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly claimed that the warnings by the US were “blackmail” and “propaganda” aimed at scaring the Russian population.
