Nearly a week after the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Moscow which left 143 dead, although claimed by the Islamic State group, "investigators have information confirming that the four attackers had received significant sums of money and cryptocurrencies from Ukraine, which were used in the preparation of this crime,” the Russian Investigative Committee said on Telegram on Thursday. Ukraine and President Zelensky have continued to vigorously deny any involvement in this massacre, accusing Moscow of wanting to “shift the blame” onto kyiv.
The body responsible for the main criminal investigations affirmed that "the work with the detained terrorists, the examination of the technical devices seized from them and the analysis of information on financial transactions made it possible to obtain evidence of their links with the Ukrainian nationalists.
He even states that “another suspect involved in the terrorist financing system has been identified and placed in detention”. Authorities previously reported the arrest of 11 people, including the four suspected attackers. Eight were charged and remanded in custody.
Also read: War in Ukraine: how Vladimir Putin exploits the Moscow attack
According to President Vladimir Putin, the four attackers, from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, were arrested in Russia's Bryansk region while trying to flee to Ukraine, where a "window" allowed them to crossing the border had been prepared on the Ukrainian side.
The director of the Russian security services (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, assured that the Ukrainian and Western secret services had “facilitated” the attack.
The White House: Russian leaders are “dung merchants”
Faced with these statements on the progress of the investigation, John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House, did not mince his words: Russian leaders are “dung merchants” trying to spread a “absurd propaganda” about the Moscow attack, for which the Islamic State group is “solely responsible”.
And to explain in more detail: his farmer uncle “used to say that the best manure sellers often carry their samples in their mouths”. And added: “Russian officials seem to be pretty good dung merchants. »