Russian investigators have opened a criminal case against unnamed “US and NATO officials” they suspect of “financing terrorism”.
The Russian Investigative Committee claimed on Tuesday that funds transferred through commercial organisations, “in particular the oil and gas company Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine”, had been used to “carry out terrorist attacks” both in Russia and abroad.
Following last month’s Moscow concert hall attack, several Russian lawmakers and public figures, including former presidential candidate Nikolay Kharitonov, called on the Investigative Committee to investigate “terrorist activity by the US, Ukraine and other Western states against Russia”.
Fire rises from Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue on 22 March 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE / VASILY PRUDNIKOV
These statements align with the Russian government’s repeatedly stated belief that the West was somehow involved in the Crocus City Hall attack. Kharitonov said on his Telegram channel in March that “the US and its allies are carrying out terror attacks on Russian territories at the hands of the Islamic State terrorist group and the Ukrainian security services”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin doubled down on these claims last week, arguing that Russia could “hardly be an object of attack by Islamic fundamentalists” as the country was “a unique example of interfaith and interethnic unity”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously condemned the Kremlin’s attempts to exploit the Moscow concert hall attack for its own political ends, and accused Putin of attempting to “turn such a situation to his personal advantage”.
