Radical Islamists

Putin acknowledges ‘radical Islamists’ carried out Moscow terror attack

But he also implied Ukraine ordered it, in another attempt to deflect blame onto the country his own forces have invaded.

BY ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH AND SEB STARCEVIC

Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time on Monday acknowledged that last week’s terror attack in Moscow was carried out by Islamic militants, but once again attempted to pin the blame on his favorite scapegoat Ukraine.

“We know that the crime was carried out by radical Islamists,” Putin said in televised remarks after a videoconference meeting with regional officials, special services and law enforcement agencies. But he added the Kremlin was investigating “who ordered” the attack and implied Kyiv was responsible.

“The question that arises is who benefits from this? This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime,” Putin claimed.

In 2014, Russia illegally invaded Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine, and Kremlin-backed fighters seized territory in eastern Ukraine. In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Heading off potential questions about the Kremlin’s security failings, particularly given the U.S. Embassy in Russia warned that Islamic militants were planning to attack Moscow earlier this month, Putin immediately sought to blame Ukraine for last Friday’s massacre. But with no evidence to back up his assertion that Kyiv was behind the attack, and with a branch of the Islamic State jihadist group claiming responsibility and releasing footage of the shooting, Putin was finally forced to name-check ISIS on Monday.

Yet Putin, who has built his authoritarian regime on a strong-man image, hinted that Russia’s cozy relationship with Hamas and stance on Israel’s war in Gaza meant the country would not be an ISIS target.

Putin, who has built his authoritarian regime on a strong-man image, hinted that Russia’s cozy relationship with Hamas and stance on Israel’s war in Gaza meant the country would not be an ISIS target. | Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images

“Are radical and even terrorist Islamic organizations really interested in striking Russia, which today stands for a fair solution to the escalating Middle East conflict?” Putin asked during Monday’s videoconference — ignoring Islamic State’s long-standing beef with his country.

Putin propped up the regime of autocrat Bashar al-Assad against the Islamic State during the Syrian civil war; in September 2022, ISIS militants claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Russian Embassy in Kabul. A branch of ISIS also operates in the Caucasus, including in Chechnya, where separatists have for years violently attempted to see off Russia’s rule.

Kyiv, meanwhile, has vehemently denied any link to last week’s terror attack and accused Putin of using it to justify further aggression on Ukraine.

“It’s obvious that Putin and other thugs are just trying to blame someone else,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Saturday.

“Their methods are always the same. We’ve seen it all before, destroyed buildings and shootings and explosions. And they always find someone else to blame,” he added.

The attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow last Friday was Russia’s deadliest in 20 years, leaving at least 139 dead and the building in flames. Seven men have now been arrested in connection with the attack.