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cnn
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The United States warned Moscow that ISIS militants were determined to attack Russia in the days before attackers stormed Crocus City Hall in an attack that killed dozens of people, but President Vladimir Putin rejected the advice as “provocative”.
Gunmen stormed a concert hall near Moscow on Friday, opened fire and threw an incendiary device in the worst terrorist attack on the Russian capital in decades.
Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Experts said the scale of the carnage – some of which was captured on video footage obtained by CNN that showed crowds of people huddled behind padded seats as gunshots echoed through the grand hall – would be deeply embarrassing for the Russian leader. who had defended a message of national security just a week before, by winning the elections organized in the country.
They said that not only were Russian intelligence services unable to prevent the attack, but Putin failed to heed warnings from the United States that extremists were plotting to attack Moscow.
Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia had said it was “following reports that extremists have imminent plans to attack large gatherings in Moscow,” including concerts, and warned US citizens to avoid such venues.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the US government had “shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its long-standing ‘duty to warn’ policy.”
But in a speech on Tuesday, Putin criticized the US warnings as “provocative” and said “these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”
That stance came despite Russian authorities reporting several ISIS-related incidents in the past month.
The state agency RIA Novosti reported on March 3 that six ISIS members were killed in a counterterrorism operation in Ingush Karabulak; On March 7, it said that security services had discovered and “neutralized” a cell of the banned organization Vilayat Khorasan in the Kaluga region, whose members were planning an attack on a synagogue in Moscow; and on March 20 he said the commander of an ISIS battle group had been detained.
Two sources familiar with US intelligence said that since November there had been a steady flow of information that ISIS-K – an ISIS affiliate that is active in Afghanistan and the surrounding region – was determined to attack Russia.
Moscow has tellingly intervened in Syria’s civil war, in support of President Bashar al-Assad and against ISIS.
ISIS-K “sees Russia as complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims,” said Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center, quoted by Reuters.
He added that the group also counts among its members several Central Asian militants, who have their own grievances against Moscow.
A U.S. official said Friday that Washington had no reason to doubt ISIS’s claim that it was responsible for the latest attack.
On Friday, following reports of the Crocus City Hall attack, the US Embassy advised US citizens not to travel to Russia.
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