Editorials

The Irish Times view on the Moscow attack: Putin tries to shift the blame

The attempt is a handy deflection of hard questions about the lack of preparedness of his security services

TOPSHOT - The Standard of the President of the Russian Federation flutters at half-mast on top of the dome of the Senate Palace as Russia observes a national day of mourning after a massacre in the Crocus City Hall that killed more than 130 people. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sun Mar 24 2024 - 20:30

With the death toll in the Crocus City Hall in suburban Moscow now reaching more than 130, a war of words has exploded internationally over responsibility for Friday’s attack by four Tajik nationals now held by the authorities. Implausible attempts by Putin to blame Ukraine have been answered by categorical denials from Kyiv and the US which insist that the terrorist group Islamic State-Khorasan (Isis-K) is entirely responsible. The group has claimed responsibility.

For Muscovites the brutal attack has terrible echoes of the Nord-Ost siege, when Chechen fighters took hundreds of hostages in a Moscow theatre in 2002, leading to the deaths of more than 170 people. Isis-K, which has recruited in the Muslim-majority republics of Chechnya and Tajikistan, holds Moscow responsible for the bloody repression there, and has explicitly targeted Russia for its propping up of the Syrian regime, its involvement in Africa, and its developing diplomatic relations with the Taliban.

The Salafist group is a 2014 offshoot of the broader Isis organisation, and has acquired a reputation for extreme brutality. It broke with Afghanistan’s rulers for their alleged failure to implement true Islamic law. It aims to create a caliphate in Khorasan, a region extending across parts of the Indian subcontinent and central Asia.

Isis-K has killed hundreds of people in recent years, waging a campaign against Afghanistan’s government and Shia minority, with a string of assassination attempts on prominent Taliban leaders. The group was responsible for an attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic evacuation. It has been involved in two recent attacks in Iran , and Pakistan.

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Putin’s attempt to pass blame to Ukraine is a handy deflection of hard questions about the lack of preparedness of his security services and their dismissal of specific US intelligence warnings in early March. It will serve to stoke hostility to Ukraine and justify ramping up “retaliatory” attacks on civilian targets there. Not that he has needed any excuse.

But the muted and deliberately vague Putin accusation may be an implicit acknowledgement that he is stretching the credulity of even his own people. His claim is limited at this stage to the implication that Kyiv may have facilitated the operation, along with the assertion that the four arrested were heading for Ukraine where “a window for crossing the state border” had been prepared .

A pliant media have embroidered his claims with no-holds-barred finger-pointing at Kyiv.

Less than a week ago, Putin claimed a fifth term with his highest-ever share of the vote. His failure to protect his people from this savage attack and patently absurd attempts to deflect blame will do little to bolster his spurious legitimacy.

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