Russia detains four foreigners involved in financing the attack in Moscow | Russia

Russian authorities announced the arrest of four people in the republic of Dagestan for alleged links to the terrorists who attacked a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow on March 22.

According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the four foreign citizens, who were detained in the cities of Makhachkala and Kaspisk, “directly” helped the terrorists who carried out the attack at Crocus City Hall, by providing money and weapons. They would also be “planning a terrorist action in a public place”.

According to FSB investigators, cited by the Russian agency TASS, the suspects had already identified the target in Kaspisk, acquired automatic weapons and manufactured an explosive device, with the aim of leaving Russia “immediately” after the attack.

The FSB released a video in which one of the alleged detainees confesses to having supplied weapons to the Moscow cell, as well as the seizure of two assault rifles and 460 rounds of ammunition in his home. In this alleged confession, he also gives an account of the plans that were conceived in Kaspisk, also with the aim of causing a massacre “in the middle of a crowd”.

More than 140 people were killed in the attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall, for which responsibility was claimed in several messages by Daesh-Khorasan, a branch of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, but Russia has insisted on the thesis that “Ukrainian nationalists” were linked to the attack, an allegation denied by Kiev. Russian authorities arrested a dozen people, including the four direct perpetrators of the massacre, the last of which took place this Monday.

Iran warning

Like the US, Iran also warned Russia about the possibility of a large-scale “terrorist operation” on its territory before the attack in Moscow, according to three sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters.

“Days before the attack in Moscow, Tehran shared information with Moscow about a possible major terrorist attack inside Russia, which was obtained during interrogations of those detained in connection with deadly attacks in Iran,” one of the sources told Reuters.

In January, Iran arrested 35 people, including a Daesh-Khorasan commander who, according to Tehran, were linked to two bomb attacks on January 3 in the city of Kerman, which killed around 100 people.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the explosions in Iran, the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. US intelligence sources said Daesh-K was responsible for the January 3 attacks in Iran and the March 22 shootings in Moscow.

The United States had also warned Russia in advance of a likely attack by Islamist militants, but Moscow, deeply suspicious of Washington’s intentions, downplayed this information.

A second source, who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the information Tehran provided to Moscow about an imminent attack lacked specific details about the timing and exact target.

“They (Daesh-K members) were instructed to prepare for a major operation in Russia… One of the terrorists (detained in Iran) said that some members of the group had already traveled to Russia,” the second source said. .

A third source, a senior security official, said: “As Iran has been the victim of terrorist attacks for years, Iranian authorities fulfilled their obligation to alert Moscow based on information obtained from detained terrorists.”

Asked about the Reuters news, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov limited himself to saying: “I don’t know anything about it.”

However, it is more difficult for Russia to ignore information from an ally like Iran about the March 22 attack, which has raised questions about the effectiveness of Russian security services. Moscow and Tehran, both under Western sanctions, have deepened military and other cooperation during the two-year war in Ukraine.