JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia has long worried about terrorism. The Moscow attack showed it may not be prepared.” – Christian Science Monitor

“While many Russians are trying to link Friday’s deadly terrorist attack to Kyiv, the more likely suspect is an older enemy: radical Islamists. Russia has diverted attention from them amid its war with Ukraine.”

“The horrific slaughter at Crocus City Hall, in which gunmen with automatic weapons and explosives killed over 130 people last Friday, has jolted Muscovites out of a sense of complacency …. Putin hinted that Ukraine might have been involved in the atrocity. … [H]he failed to mention a more plausible suspect: the group known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), a sworn enemy of Russia generally associated with [that] kind of ruthless, face-to-face massacre[] …. The four prime suspects, who fled the scene in a car, were apprehended in Russia’s southwestern Bryansk region …. Sunday night, the suspects, … from the former Soviet central Asian state of Tajikistan, were hauled before a Moscow court – all of them very badly beaten – and charged with terrorism …. [M]any Russians seem eager to embrace a Ukrainian connection to the attack, [yet] it looks like exactly the sort of threat emanating from Afghanistan that Russian security experts have been warning about for years. …”

Click here for: “Russia has long worried about terrorism. The Moscow attack showed it may not be prepared. While many Russians are trying to link Friday’s deadly terrorist attack to Kyiv, the more likely suspect is an older enemy: radical Islamists. Russia has diverted attention from them amid its war with Ukraine.” – Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir