ISW names organizers of recent terrorist attack in Moscow's suburbs

The terrorist attack by the militants of the Islamic State of Khorasan on the Moscow shopping center, Crocus City Hall, is a notable failure of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the russian federation. The nature of the attack indicates that only Islamic terrorists were involved in the incident; no signs of Ukraine's involvement were found.

This follows from a statement by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

According to the report, the explanation of the evidence available today from open sources "does not require any broader and more complex conspiracy theory both within and against the russian state."

ISW also noted that the evidence indicates that the Crocus City Hall attack was the result of a significant failure of russian intelligence, rather than a conspiracy initiated or directed against the russian intelligence apparatus.

The organization drew attention to the too-slow speed of response of russian law enforcement officers to the incident - security service officers first arrived at Crocus City Hall an hour after the start of the attack, despite the fact that the headquarters of the Moscow riot police is located less than three kilometers from the building.

ISW also recalled that the United States had warned russia about "quite specific" signs of preparations by the Islamic State for attacks, but three days before the attack, Putin rejected these warnings as "provocative statements".

"Russian intelligence may well have decided to ignore the warning of American intelligence because of extreme distrust of the United States, which Putin has driven deep into the russian information and security space," the report says.

In addition, the Institute notes, the Kremlin was concerned about the spillover effects of intelligence operations targeting Muslim communities in russia, which would "cause even more resentment and alienation in a community that Moscow already discriminates against but relies on to forcefully create a wartime workforce." in Ukraine".

"Russian authorities may have weighed the cost of acting on intelligence from an adversary they do not trust against the risk of affecting a critical source of mobilization resources and found that risk too high," the ISW report said.

As earlier reported, on the evening of March 23, terrorists of the international group Islamic State (ISIS) announced their involvement in the terrorist attack in the russian Crocus City Hall.

At the same time, at the beginning of March, the United States warned the aggressor state, russia, about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow.