Crocus City Hall terrorists were not ISIS members

Vadim Gorshenin, the founder of Pravda.Ru media holding commented on the terrorist attack that took place at Crocus City Hall near Moscow.

Photo: mosreg.ru by Пресс-служба Губернатора Московской области is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence

"A large-scale bloody terrorist attack took place in Russia. Russia started investigating it, but other countries persistently try to convince Russia who perpetrator of the attack was. How do they know? Russian special services captured the terrorists and made them talk. It just so happens that Russian investigators have obtained first-hand facts, but someone from across the ocean is telling them not to listen to them," Vadim Gorshenin said.

NATO claimed that ISIS* terrorist group was behind the attack, and Russian liberals follow them in this version.

Yet, there are a number of arguments that cast doubt on Islamists' involvement in the Crocus tragedy:

• Firstly, the terrorist attack occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when such actions are considered unacceptable.
• Secondly, the detained terrorists were not religious fanatics, nor did they have relevant literature.
• Thirdly, their motivation, apparently, was to receive monetary rewards in rubles. There were no religious beliefs involved.
• Fourthly, the target of the attack was a concert center owned by a Muslim of Azerbaijani origin.

"I could find the ISIS video of the attack only on a website of I'lam Foundation, which is registered in Belgium (Belgium is one of the founders of NATO, by the way). The website widely advertises so-called activities of ISIS. Yet, they cover the acts committed in the countries or against the countries, in which the United States has interests in one way or another.

The I'lam Foundation usually receives funding from external donations in cryptocurrency, mainly from Western supporters of the Islamic State,” Vadim Gorshenin said.

As a result, we have a picture in which the domain that distributes materials about the involvement of the Islamic State (terrorist organisation, banned in Russia) is located in one of the founding countries of NATO, and Western media actively pick up this version.

"John Kirby first said that the warnings before March 8 about imminent terrorist attacks in Moscow were not connected with Crocus. He then said that the warnings were about ISIS, that everything was interconnected."

Based on the information we have at hand, we may assume that those who committed this terrorist attack are not religious fanatics. Their knowledge of Islam and its dogmas remains unknown to us.

NATO countries that confront Russia in Ukraine are obviously trying to impose their interpretation of events without having access to investigative materials. This suggests that certain forces are interested in destabilising the situation in Russia under the guise of the fight against terrorism.

*ISIL, ISIS — terrorist groups, banned in Russia.