Russia’s security and intelligence services are under scrutiny since last week’s attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed 137.
The shock of last Friday’s deadly attack on Moscow’s packed Crocus City Hall venue may be slowly wearing off, but the uncomfortable questions leveled at Russia’s intelligence and security services remain.
The Russian capital as well as the entire country are in deep mourning over the March 22 tragedy. At least 137 people were killed, and Russian state media reported that 360 people, including 11 children, were injured as of Wednesday.
Moscow has blamed Ukraine, but Kyiv denounced the accusations as «absurd.» ISIS-K, a branch of the Islamic State militant group, claimed responsibility. U.S. intelligence suggested the extremist organization, which operates largely in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, was behind the attack. Often contradictory signaling from Moscow pointed the finger at «radical Islamists» while still seeking to pin the blame on the U.S. and Ukraine.
Investigations are ongoing. But this does not detract from the scrutiny Russia’s security and intelligence services are now under, particularly why the FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB tasked with counterterrorism, did not foil the attack plot.
The attack was a «notable Russian intelligence and law enforcement failure,» the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S. think tank, said earlier this week.
The reason, experts suggest, is tunnel vision: With all roads in the Kremlin leading to Ukraine, the FSB’s attention was divided and ISIS-K slipped through. This, analysts say, is something that’s unlikely to change.
Four attackers drove up to the capital’s Crocus City Hall shortly before 7 p.m. Moscow time last Friday, the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, said in a meeting with high-ranking officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier this week.
The attackers waited for the audience to file into the hall for just over an hour before opening fire on people in the street close to the building, he said, according to a Kremlin readout.
«Having entered the lobby of the building, and then into the concert hall, they continued shooting at all citizens they noticed, regardless of gender and age,» he said.
