Escape to Ukraine

New developments arising from the investigations into the bloodbath in Moscow (kindly refer to my post published March 24):

 

Confessions released by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Sunday revealed that two escape routes had been prepared in Ukraine for the alleged terrorists arrested for attacking a packed concert hall outside Moscow last month.

 

The agency showed snippets from interrogation videos in which the suspects confessed that they had been promised money in Kiev, each person to receive one million rubles ($11,000). 

 

Four Tajik nationals are accused of opening fire inside the Crocus City Hall concert venue and then setting the building on fire, on March 22. A total of 145 people were killed and more than 500 injured in the attack. 

 

The men were detained the next day while trying to flee to Ukraine by car. More suspects were arrested in the following days, most of them also of Tajik origin. 

 

The jihadist group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) have claimed responsibility for the attack. FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov, however, has suggested that the US, UK, and Ukraine may also be linked to the bloodbath, possibly using the Islamists as proxies. (Ukraine and its Western backers have denied any involvement).

 

Russian officials previously stated that a “window” to cross the border had been arranged on the Ukrainian side. The FSB claimed on Sunday that the Ukrainians had been conducting “demining activities” near the villages of Chuykovka and Sopych, pointing to two possible escape routes. 

 

Russia’s Investigative Committee said earlier this week that pro-Ukrainian images had been discovered on a phone belonging to one of the suspects.

 

The plot thickens.