Russian Lawmakers Call for Probe of West Over 'Terrorist' Attacks

Russian lawmakers have asked the Kremlin to investigate claims that Western countries are financing and organizing "terrorist" attacks against Russian citizens.

The request, made by the Russian State Duma, comes days after gunmen killed 140 people at Moscow's Crocus City Hall concert venue on Friday. The Afghanistan-based Islamic State (IS) group IS-Khorasan has claimed full responsibility for the massacre. Russian officials have charged four men, accusing them of committing a terrorist act. The suspects could face life in prison.

Kremlin officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have previously insinuated that the attack was tied to Ukraine, although there has been no evidence to support such claims.

Other Russian figures have also accused the West of having "direct participation" in the bloodshed. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned residents earlier this month that extremist groups had "imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow," and the White House has said that there is "no evidence" that Ukraine was behind the attack.

The Russian Investigative Committee and the Kremlin's Prosecutor General's Office are considering appeals to investigate the "organization and financing of terrorist attacks by the United States and other Western services directed against the Russian Federation," according to a report by the Russian-state backed media outlet TASS. The request from Russian lawmakers to investigate such ties, however, did not specifically reference the mass shooting at Crocus City Hall, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

"The Kremlin likely aims to seize on wider Russian social fears and anger following the Crocus City Hall attack by portraying Ukraine, the U.S., and the West as immediate terrorist threats," the U.S.-based think tank said in its assessment of the Russia-Ukraine war on Wednesday.

"The Kremlin likely hopes that perceptions of Ukrainian and Western involvement in the Crocus City Hall attack will increase domestic support for the war in Ukraine, and Russian officials will likely invoke a broader view of what they consider terrorism to further cast Ukrainians as terrorists and the West as a sponsor of terrorism," the ISW continued.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment late Wednesday night.

Disinformation campaigns have surrounded the Russia-Ukraine war since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and several false claims about Ukraine's ties to the Crocus City Hall attack circulated within hours after Friday's mass shooting.

According to a report from the BBC, several pro-Kremlin bloggers made posts blaming Ukraine within an hour after the attack. Another clip was circulated by one of Russia's main TV channels that showed a deepfake of a senior Ukrainian official, Oleksiy Danilov, taking responsibility for the attack.

Putin admitted during a televised address on Monday night that the attack was carried out by "radical Islamists," although he added during his speech that the "atrocity can only be a link in a chain of attempts by those who have been at war with Russia since 2014 through the Kyiv regime."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to Putin's accusations in his own address on Monday, calling the Russian leader a "sick and cynical creature" for making such claims.

"Everyone is a terrorist to him, except for himself, although he has been fueled by terror for two decades already," Zelensky added.

While the Kremlin has stopped short of formally accusing Ukraine for the mass shooting, the ISW said that Moscow still may choose to do so "if it believes that these other informational efforts are insufficient to generate the domestic response it likely desires."