Is Russia using Ukraine’s name in Moscow’s attack shows President Putin’s cynical action?

A terrorist attack in Russia’s capital city Moscow, has brought back terrorist organization ISIS, in news. On 22nd March, the group open fired in a popular concert hall complex, near Moscow that killed 60 people and injured around 145 people, according to CNN. The videos surfaced in media reveals three terrorists with guns, open firing at people in the hall. A man in a video is seen saying, ‘They are setting us on fire’ as later terrorists set a massive fire before they were planning to escape. According to Al Jazeera, the ISIS-K (ISIL) group has claimed its presence behind this attack by releasing a statement on Telegram and published by ISIS affiliated news channel Amaq. Four suspects have been arrested by Russian police and were presented to the court. While appearing in court, all of them could be seen heavily beaten up with bruised faces, under their custody. Possibilities of life sentences to all the suspects as they are charged under terrorism law.
Despite of ISIS taking responsibility, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned Ukraine at the time of addressing nation after the terrorist attack. He said, ‘They tried to hide and were moving in the direction of Ukraine. There, according to the preliminary data they had a crossing of the border prepared from the Ukrainian side.’ However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the allegations and said, it is obvious that Putin and others are just trying to find someone else to blame. And that instead of dealing with his fellow Russian citizens addressing them, he was silent for 24 hours thinking about how to tie this to Ukraine. On the other hand, US officials claim that the warning was given to the Russian government before, but it was ignored by them. ‘The US government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its long standing ‘duty to warn’ policy’ said an US official after the attack, quoted BBC.
Political expert Dhara Bishnoi commented on the ongoing investigation and political developments. She said, ‘It is unfortunate that so many people lost their lives and got injured in this attack. This is the first big attack ISIS has carried after years. While there were speculations about the end of ISIS, there was a possible room for them carrying a violent attack in last few years, due to several reasons. Also, the constant warnings by intelligence agencies of countries has alarmed defence forces and government few times.’ On asking to elaborate ‘several reasons’ that increase possibilities of ISIS to carry terrorist attacks, she said the narrative of Muslims persecution around the world is not wrong to speculate as the reason. ‘Well, if you look around the world, there are multiple examples for terrorist group like ISIS to plant a terrorist activity on the name of protecting Islam. The group has always opposed west countries, their diplomacies. France getting rigid with laws towards Muslim population living in the country, and now Israel carrying aggressive operation over Muslims in Palestine, they would want to make people realize and bring back that fear among them’, she said.
She also added that, however, their attacks have killed thousands of Muslims across the world. ‘They claim that they are Muslim and that their group is Islamic but they are representing it all wrong instead they are planting wrong seed about the religion in people’s mind. Their radical views around the concept brainwashes many young people’, she said. Meanwhile, Russia is openly blaming Ukraine for its connection with terrorists. According to the information, Russian authorities refuse to mention ISIS in their statements, irrespective of the group admitting it, and are directing their every allegation towards Ukraine. The Guardian quoted, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova in an article for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said, ‘Attention – a question to the White House: Are you sure it’s ISIS? Might you think again about that?’ Russian Government spokesperson, Dimitry Peskov said, ‘The investigation continues. No solid theory has been announced just yet. This is only a matter of preliminary information. Our security services are working on their own, no assistance is currently on the table’, to the reporters.
Why Russia is in disbelief? According to Expert Dhara, it could be another theory calculated by Russian government to justify their actions over Ukraine and their further plans, whatsoever. She said, ‘ISIS shortly after the attack claimed the responsibility, even US officials publicly disclosed about the warnings they gave to the authorities and that the information available to them strongly confirms ISIS entity instigated this attack. So, if Russia is not agreeing with all this evident information present around, there has to be a personal interest that this narrative is serving or will serve the country in future. Now, it could be either, going in the direction of extreme aggression over Ukraine in regards to revenge or in past, the mass destruction Russia has been involved with amid ongoing war with Ukraine, will be justified by blaming Ukraine’s terror intentions.’
As per latest updates, President Putin has mentioned ‘radical Islamists’ behind the attack but also declared that a ‘window’ had been prepared for the attackers to flee to Ukraine.