Moscow continues to push unfounded theories that Ukraine and the United States may have played a role in the March 22 terror attack on Crocus City Hall, a concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow.
The United States has pushed back against that disinformation narrative, saying it alerted Russia to the terror plot weeks in advance.
Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K), the Islamic State (IS) extremist group affiliate active in South and Central Asia, claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 143 people and injured nearly 200.
On April 2, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin conceded the U.S. warned Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) about the attack but claimed that information was too general to be useful.
"The FSB had received certain information from US intelligence services that, unfortunately, such [an attack] was possible. But, as our Russian counterparts have said, that information was very vague and it did not allow us to identify those behind the deadly crime," Naryshkin told reporters.
That is disputed.
On April 2, The Washington Post reported that U.S. officials warned Russia more than two weeks before the attack that Crocus City Hall was a potential target.
Despite the U.S. "duty to warn" policy, experts and officials told the Post it "is unusual to give information about specific targets to an adversary."
But this attack potentially endangered U.S. citizens, prompting the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to warn of the terror plot on March 7.
People familiar with the matter told the Post the U.S. shared its information about the planned attack with Russia a day before the embassy issued its public warning.
The New York Times later confirmed the Post report.
On April 3, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of the U.S. warning, adding such information "is transmitted directly from [security] service to [security] service," and was not a Kremlin matter.
A Russian government source told Russia's Interfax news agency the Post report "is not true."
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev pushed back against suggestions that IS was ultimately responsible for the attack, despite the terrorist group's claim of responsibility.
Patrushev falsely claimed that IS was "created by Washington." He further claimed, without evidence, that Ukrainian intelligence may have masterminded the attack, and that the government in Kyiv is "controlled by the United States."
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby had earlier told VOA such allegations are "nonsense."
"[W]e had information that they were going to put Russian people, innocent Russians at risk from a terrorist threat. So you bet we informed Russian authorities as appropriate as we would do for any country," Kirby said.
Still, Russian officials continue to implicate Ukraine.
On April 4, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said "Ukraine has become an outright terrorist state," citing what he called the "Ukrainian trace" in the Crocus attack.
Ukraine has denied any role in the attack.
Also on April 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could not have been "the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists," claiming Russia demonstrates a unique example of interfaith and interethnic unity and harmony.
Moscow's support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad; its alliance and cooperation with Iran — a sworn IS enemy — in Syria; its alleged complicity in the oppression of Muslims in South and Central Asia, particularly in Afghanistan; and its brutal military campaigns in Chechnya are all reasons that Islamic State has targeted Russia.
The New York Times, citing Western officials, said Russia initially heeded the U.S. warning, but when the attack failed to materialize immediately, Russia appeared to have lowered its guard, "potentially considering the American warning false."
Moscow has denied or otherwise downplayed U.S. warnings about the attack, and floated alternative theories, to paper over its own intelligence service failures and score propaganda points against Ukraine.
Reports have noted that Russian security services have increasingly focused on domestic opponents, Ukrainian saboteurs and other foreign intelligence agencies, potentially leaving the country more vulnerable to terrorist threats.
On March 7, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued an alert stating that "extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours."
Putin dismissed the U.S. warning as "provocative" and intended to "intimidate and destabilize our society."
Prominent Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky told VOA it was a personal disgrace that Putin had derided the U.S. warning while speaking with FSB chiefs three days before the terrorist attack, essentially giving "the command to the intelligence service to relax on the topic of the warning from the Americans."
International security experts told VOA the Kremlin is attempting to link Ukraine to the attack to further mobilize domestic public support for Russia's war in Ukraine.
There are indications that Russia from the outset intended to blame Ukraine and/or Washington, regardless of the evidence.
Immediately after the attack, Meduza, a Latvia-based independent news site, spoke with two sources who claimed Moscow had instructed state media and Kremlin-loyal publications to emphasize the possible "Ukrainian trace" in reports about the terrorist attack in Crocus.
Russian state media has published highly speculative articles linking Kyiv to the attack, some even hinting at the existence of a "Ukrainian Caliphate."
Russia previously played up the far-right threat in Ukraine and claims it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 to "de-nazify" the country.