According to the head of the Ministry of Finance of Great Britain, Jeremy Hunt, Russia is spreading propaganda about the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall shopping center near Moscow.
How the Kremlin uses propaganda to distort the circumstances of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack
Hunt noted that civilian casualties are horrendous, even in countries whose governments are strongly disapproved of in the West.
We can only hope that the culprits will be caught, the British minister emphasized.
At the same time, Hunt rejected the Kremlin's accusation that Ukraine was involved in the terrorist attack.
"We have very little faith in what the Russian government says," said the head of the British Treasury.
He added that the Kremlin uses propaganda to create a "smoke screen" around the circumstances of the terrorist attack.
Hunt also noted, speaking about the potential terrorist threat, that British society "must be on guard."
What the terrorist attack in the suburbs of Moscow showed
As the journalists of The Washington Post note , Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin, during a speech about the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall shopping center near Moscow, actually admitted his inability to prevent this incident.
The authors of the article draw attention to the fact that Putin did not mention ISIS during his speech.
Instead, Putin used his five-minute televised address on Saturday to emphasize that the four immediate perpetrators were "moving toward Ukraine" when they were detained, and that "a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border." He did not directly blame Ukraine, which denied any involvement, but the reference to "Nazis" — his usual label for the Ukrainian government — made it clear that he was blaming Kyiv, the article noted.
Horrifying videos of gunmen wielding automatic weapons killing innocent concertgoers in cold blood and setting fire to one of the Russian capital's most popular entertainment venues have undermined Putin's efforts to portray Russia as strong, united and resilient, the publication said.
The attack came just five days after Putin's "triumphant" victory in a presidential election that was "heavily controlled by the Kremlin and widely condemned abroad as falling short of democratic standards."
Despite Putin's rhetoric targeting Ukraine's involvement, analysts, former US security officials and members of the Russian elite said the attack underscored the vulnerability of Putin's wartime regime, which was also evident when Yevgeny Prigozhin led his Wagner mercenaries in a brief mutiny to oust top defense officials in June, the authors of the article emphasize.
According to journalists, given Putin's authoritarian control over power in the Russian Federation, the Russian leader is unlikely to face any criticism.
At the same time, the rhetoric of accusations towards Ukraine and the West will continue and may lead to further repression, as Putin seeks to push his nation into a protracted war.
