“There’s something called a duty to warn. When countries pick up chatter on terrorist activity, even if you’re giving the information to a foe or a competitor, like Russia is to us [United States], you still have that duty to give that intelligence to their intelligence agency.”
He added: “His intelligence agency has received this information, they knew something was going to happen, it was even as specific to say that it could happen in a concert venue. And yet they did nothing about it.”
Another analyst suggested Putin delayed addressing the Russian public out of fear as the incident at the Crocus City Hall music venue showed the country is “vulnerable to attack.”
Prof. Glees said: “Yet less than one week after his ‘landslide’ rigged election, the Crocus Hall attack shows Putin cannot do the one single thing any leader, dictator or democrat has to do: keep his people safe. He’s failed.”
Despite ISIS claiming responsibility – and the US saying it has evidence to back up its claim – Putin tried to shift the blame on Ukraine – which vehemently denied any involvement in the devastating terror attack.
Russia continues to investigate after detaining 11 suspects but it wasn’t possible to confirm the authenticity of statements issued by Russian investigators.
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IS is an offshoot of al-Qaida that took over much of Iraq and Syria in 2014. It launched a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis, a religious minority that lives in northern Iraq, as well as other groups.
By 2018, it had been largely defeated on the battlefield by a US-led coalition, but it continues to operate in desert hideouts in both countries. Its regional affiliates are also present in Afghanistan, West Africa and the Far East.
A US official told The Associated Press that US agencies said that IS-K, a Central Asian affiliate of the Islamic State group, was responsible for the attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that IS-K has long targeted Russia.
Russia’s FSB, the Federal Security Service, said that it disrupted an attack by the same group that was aimed at a Moscow synagogue just a few weeks ago.
A security expert, Olivier Guitta, argues that there is much to back up the Islamic State’s claim, including the fact that the group had specifically threatened Russia.
He noted that it took place on a Friday during the holy month of Ramadan, a time favoured by jihadis. And once again the target was a concert hall, just as in the 2015 attack on the Bataclan theatre in Paris and the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.
