ALBAWABA - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, questioned in an article ISISI's claims of responsibility over the latest tragic Crocus City Hall concert attack, which killed at least 154 people.
"Attention - a question to the White House: Are you sure it's ISIS? Might you think again about that?" Zakharova said in an article for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
Zakharova claimed that the US was propagating a version of the "bogeyman" of ISIS to protect its "wards" in Kyiv, reminding readers that Washington backed the "mujahideen" rebels who fought Soviet forces in the 1980s.
President Vladimir Putin has not officially identified ISIS in connection with the attackers, who he said were attempting to flee to Ukraine.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which the US publicly stated it believed, and the extremist group has subsequently released what it claims is video evidence from the incident. Earlier this month, US officials claimed to have warned Russia of intelligence indicating an impending strike, according to Reuters.
Putin stated that some people on "the Ukrainian side" were preparing to transport the gunmen across the border. Ukraine has denied any involvement in the incident, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Putin of attempting to shift blame for the music hall attack by referencing Ukraine.
Putin said 11 people had been captured, including the four suspected gunmen who fled out of the concert hall and traveled to the Bryansk region, approximately 340 kilometers (210 miles) southwest of Moscow, before crossing the border into Ukraine.
Four men, including at least one Tajik, have been held in jail for terrorism. They appeared separately and were brought into a cage at Moscow's Basmanny district court by Federal Security Service officials.
Crocus City Hall Concert Attack
On Friday evening, masked gunmen entered and set fire to the Crocus City Hall in Moscow's northern district of Krasnogorsk, killing at least 154 people.
The Islamic State organization on Saturday claimed on Telegram that the attack was "carried out by four ISIS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives, and firebombs,".
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish those responsible for the "barbaric terrorist attack," saying that four gunmen were trying to flee to Ukraine, however, they have been captured.
Some witnesses filmed the gunmen from the upper floors as they walked through the stalls shooting people, and sharing the footage on social media.
