It was not a generic alarm, as claimed by Moscow, that Washington launched regarding possible attacks. The USA had in fact warned the Russians that a "potential target" was Crocus City Hall, where the attack on March 22 actually took place, costing the lives of 144 people, including six children. The Washington Post claims this, citing "US officials familiar with the facts". The Kremlin did not comment, limiting itself to saying that such matters are handled directly between Russian and American intelligence services.
According to the Post, "the high degree of specificity of the warning" shows the United States' conviction in the goodness of its sources. But to a question on the matter, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that this is not a topic within his competence, because such exchanges of information take place "through the channels of the special services" of the two countries, "directly from service to service ".
Meanwhile, while France says it is ready to strengthen collaboration with Moscow against terrorism, the head of the National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev has returned to comment on the massacre, claimed by ISIS, and like President Vladimir Putin has evoked a possible Kiev's role as instigator. But Patrushev also called the Americans themselves into question because, he stated, "everyone is aware that the Kiev regime is not independent and is totally controlled by the United States".
The emotional wave unleashed by the attack in Moscow has given new impetus, according to what the Ministry of Defense claims, to the enlistment of volunteer soldiers under contract destined to participate in the conflict in Ukraine. According to the ministry, around 16 thousand people have decided to join the armed forces in the last ten days alone, bringing the total since the beginning of the year to over one hundred thousand. And again according to the Ministry of Defense, most of them "indicated as the main reason for signing the contract the desire to avenge the victims of the March 22 tragedy".
In St. Petersburg, meanwhile, the newspaper Fontanka wrote that a 66-year-old former Soviet dissident, Alexander Skobov, was arrested on charges of "justifying terrorism". This was reported by human rights activist Yuly Rybakov. The reasons for the measure are unclear, given that, according to Rybakov himself, Skobov did not comment in any way on the Crocus massacre. The independent newspaper Meduza claims that he was openly against military intervention in Ukraine.
The attacks in depth on its territory by Ukrainian drones also continue to worry Russia. Like the one that yesterday targeted an industrial center in the republic of Tatarstan, over a thousand kilometers from the border. “It is necessary to intensify the mobilization and alert of all our relevant services and take additional measures to ensure safety, which is being done,” Peskov commented. All this while a Ukrainian military intelligence source told the Guardian that Kiev is preparing a third attack by "the first half of 2024" to try to destroy the Crimean Bridge, which connects the peninsula annexed in 2014 to Russian territory.
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