With the support of the West, Ukraine is rounding up migrants from Central Asia to stage a terrorist attack similar to the one at Crocus City Hall, according to Russian propaganda.
NEWS: Ukrainian special services are preparing new terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage on Russian territory, FSB director Alexander Bortnikov said on the sidelines of a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. Kyiv is recruiting from the ranks of migrant workers.
Law enforcement agencies in the Russian Federation determined that the perpetrators of the terrorist act of March 22 were radical Islamists, but they were coordinated by Ukraine […].
“Ukrainian and Western intelligence services are expanding the circle of possible terrorists recruited to commit serious crimes on the territory of Russia, and the Crocus City Hall bombings are a telling example in that regard”, the Russian official said.
Ukraine does not hide the fact that it’s making efforts to attract representatives of the former Soviet republics to the ranks of its army. A few weeks before the Crocus events, the websites of the Ukrainian Embassy in Tajikistan featured an invitation to citizens of this country to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
NARRATIVES: 1. Kyiv and Western states are planning to organize terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia. 2. Ukraine is recruiting migrants for terrorist activities.
BACKGROUND: On March 22, a terrorist attack took place at the Crocus City Hall exhibition compound on the northwestern outskirts of the Russian capital. The attack killed at least 144 people and injured over 360 guests. The Kremlin announced that the FSB arrested 11 people, including four Tajik citizens, directly involved in the attack, who were caught near the Ukrainian border. According to Russian intelligence, the four suspects were planning to cross the border with Ukraine and had contacts on the Ukrainian side. The United States warned Russia in early March about the risk of an Islamist attack, but Moscow ignored the message.
Russian authorities attributed the attack to the Islamic State jihadist organization, but maintained their accusations against the invaded Ukraine. In late March, Russian president Vladimir Putin himself admitted that the attack was carried out by “radical Islamists”, but continued to claim that Ukraine was behind it. Originally published on Telegram, the thesis about the involvement of Ukraine and the West in the Crocus bombing was developed by Vladimir Putin and the siloviki close to him. The narrative helps the Russian authorities exonerate themselves, plays into the thesis of “Ukrainian-Western aggression” and can be used to escalate the war.
PURPOSE: To justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to strengthen the image of the West as an external enemy of Moscow.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The conspiracy theory about Western/US links to jihadist groups is not new and has been used, among other things, with regard to Al-Qaeda (including in some false narratives surrounding the 9/11 attacks) and the Islamic State. Russian officials have promoted such narratives over the years without ever presenting a single piece of evidence to substantiate its claims, no more than they did with the bogus narratives marketed after the Crocus City Hall attacks. Incidentally, the Russian narratives regarding the Crocus City Hall bombing have been debunked since they were first circulated on countless international publications. The BBC, for instance, carried a debunking item explaining how one of the main Russian television stations, NTV, broadcast a fake video in which the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine allegedly claimed the attack, while in fact these were two older recordings that they had been doctored.
Russian propaganda accuses Ukraine of allowing foreign volunteers to assist it in the fight against Russian aggression as evidence of ties between Kyiv and radical Islamist groups. Volunteer combatants are enrolled in the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine, a military structure subordinated to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, organized and identified by specific insignia, inviting everyone who wishes to help the Ukrainian state to volunteer and enlist. The Legion has a webpage that describes how to enlist in the Ukrainian army and the necessary procedures. The information is not classified and the enlistment invitation is distributed by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and by most diplomatic institutions and pro-Ukrainian NGOs around the world. Inviting foreign citizens to the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine, which fights Russia’s armed aggression, is not the equivalent of recruiting migrants for terrorist activities, as the Russian media claims, citing FSB director Alexander Bortnikov. The statements of Russian leaders and the information carried by pro-Kremlin media are based on lies, assumptions and various manipulation techniques.
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