The United States on Thursday branded Russian officials “pretty good manure salesmen” after Moscow sought to link the attack on the Crocus City Hall music venue to “Ukrainian nationalists.”
“My uncle used to say that the best manure salesmen often carry their samples in their mouths. Russian officials seem to be pretty good manure salesmen,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
His remarks come after Russian investigators said they had evidence linking “Ukrainian nationalists” to last week’s attack on the concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow in which at least 143 people were killed.
“As a result of working with detained terrorists, studying the technical devices seized from them, and analyzing information about financial transactions, evidence was obtained of their connection with Ukrainian nationalists,” the Russian Investigative Committee said.
They said the attackers had received significant cash and cryptocurrency from Ukraine.
However, they did not provide evidence for their claims, and Kirby denounced it as Russia’s “nonsense propaganda.”
Last Friday’s attack has been claimed by the ISIS-K terror group, an offshoot of the self-styled “Islamic State” based in Afghanistan, which has also released videos on its propaganda channels seeming to show perpetrators in the act.
The US had publicly warned before the concert shooting that it had received intelligence of a possible attack by extremists in Russia.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that “radical Islamists” had been behind the attack but repeated his accusation that Ukraine could have played a role — despite strong denials from Kyiv.
Eleven people were arrested in the first 24 hours after the attack and eight, including the four suspected gunmen, have been placed in pre-trial detention.
Seven of those in custody are from the Central Asian state of Tajikistan and the other is from Kyrgyzstan.
lo/wd (AFP, Reuters)
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