By Taysir Muhammad
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Sadness looms over Russia, particularly in Moscow, following the savage attack that occurred in one of the largest shopping centers in the city and led to the killing of at least 130 people and the injury of several others. The attack was described as a terrorist act and has not been witnessed in Russia for years.
The attack took place about a week after the presidential election, in which current president, Vladimir Putin, win by a landslide majority. It also occurred during a phase when the war with Ukraine escalated amid mutual threats of further escalation and indications that the Western system is just around the corner of getting more involved in the crisis between Ukraine and Russia.
Eyewitnesses and surveillance cameras captured scenes late on Sunday, showing armed individuals in Renault car wearing camouflage clothing and carrying automatic weapons. They ran towards the main entrance, opened fire on the guards, and then headed towards the banquet hall, shooting at anyone in front of them.
Within a few hours, the ISIS branch of Khorasan Province (ISIS_K) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Reuters. Russian security agencies subsequently arrested 11 individuals, stating that four of them were directly involved in the operation.
Moscow has yet to issue an official statement regarding the attackers’ motives, but President Vladimir Putin vowed that whoever is behind this attack would face fair and inevitable punishment, as he expressed it.
Amidst varying perspectives among Russian observers, there is uncertainty about the possible parties behind the attack and the objectives they sought to achieve through it.
ISIS
According to Sergey Persanov, researcher on international affairs, the hypothesis of ISIS involvement seems the most likely due to the brutal nature of the killings, which also targeted women and children.
According to confessions of one of those arrested, he was recruited for a financial reward by a religious extremist group through the Telegram application. This supports the hypothesis of the involvement of ISIS in the operation, according to Persanov.
The speaker, in his interview with North Press, suggests that the attack may be a response to the consecutive defeats suffered by the ISIS in Syria, and that they attempted to avenge these defeats through bloody terrorist operations there.
According to the Russian expert, the terrorist operation in Moscow once again indicates the danger of the international community’s declining attention to the phenomenon of cross-border terrorism and the tragic consequences it leads to.
Andrei Zaitsev, expert in geopolitical studies, does not rule out the possibility of Ukraine’s connection to the attack, either directly or through providing logistical facilitation to the perpetrators.
Kyiv
Zaitsev’s argument is based on the fact that Ukraine wants to transfer the battle to Russia in other forms after the failure of the promised counterattack since mid-2023. Russian security agencies have also confirmed that the militants attempted to move towards the Ukrainian borders and acknowledged their connection to the authorities in Kyiv.
It is not excluded that the interests of Ukrainian intelligence agencies have aligned with those of ISIS, as they consider Russia a common enemy. The conditions have matured for a joint operation, according to the expert.
Generally, Zaitsev indicates that the danger of the ISIS remains, regardless of the parties that may have resorted to the ISIS_K, which is considered one of the ISIS most internationally active branches, in order to settle scores with Moscow.