More than two weeks before the terrorists carried out the bloody attack in the Moscow region, the US government notified Russian officials that the popular concert hall "Crocus City Hall" is a potential target, say familiar American officials, quoted by the "Washington Post", writes BTA.
The US designation of the concert hall "Crocus City Hall" as a potential target – something that had not been reported before - raising new questions about why Russian authorities did not take stronger preventive measures at the site where gunmen killed more than 140 people. Branch of "Islamic State" claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Russia in 20 years. US officials have publicly said the group, known as the Islamic State-Khorasan, "bears full responsibility", but Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to shift the blame to Ukraine.
The attack further damaged the image of strength and security that the Russian leader is trying to instill, and revealed fundamental weaknesses in the national security apparatus, which has been consumed by the more than two-year war in Ukraine, the American publication writes. According to analysts and observers of Russian politics, the Russian special services are more concerned with silencing political dissent and opposition to the president than preventing terrorist plots, notes the "Washington Post".
The Russian leader himself publicly rejected the US warnings just three days before the March 22 attack, calling them "outright blackmail" and attempts to "intimidate and destabilize our society", the paper stated.
The Kremlin spokesman did not respond to an inquiry by the "Washington Post" regarding the posted information about the "Crocus City Hall" warning. Yesterday, however, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Moscow, quoted by the state-run Interfax news agency, that the information the US had shared was "too general and did not allow us to fully identify those who committed this terrible crime".
Naryshkin indicated that in response to receiving the US intelligence, Russia had "taken appropriate measures to prevent" of the attack, states the "Washington Post".
The spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, today called the publication of the "Washington Post" that the USA warned Russia of a possible terrorist attack in the "Crocus City Hall" an informational provocation, TASS reported.
"We are already so used to American informational provocations and their refusal of their own statements that I want to ask you to get from the American side factual material on this topic. In other words, when and to whom did they transmit this information," the spokeswoman said at a press conference.