Western intelligence agencies knew yesterday that the perpetrators were similar to ISIS*. That's why they started feeding this version, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, said while commenting on the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.

Again. They knew who the performers were before their arrest. This is direct participation, she added.

* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and other countries.

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Is Ukraine ISIS* already?

The idea that ISIS were responsible for the Crocus Hall terrorist attack does not seem to line up, Anatoliy Matviychuk, a military expert and retired colonel who has experience in combat operations in Afghanistan and Syria, tells Sputnik.

“They [the perpetrators] were rushing to Ukraine. ISIS militants wouldn’t rush towards Ukraine unless Ukraine is ISIS [already], so they were rushing there in order to hide. So there is some inconsistency there," he says.

Earlier, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that the perpetrators of the Moscow terror attack were detained in the Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border. 

Mere hours after the attack, Western media published a series of articles in which they claimed that the ISIS terrorist group was behind it.

*ISIS (also known as IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

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We already know the names of the perpetrators. We have already seen their faces and know that they “sing” during interrogation. (We do not publish the names as it is an ongoing investigation), Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, said while commenting on the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.

And it immediately becomes obvious why American media shouted in unison that it was ISIS yesterday. Because this is not ISIS*. It’s just that the actors were selected in such a way that they could convince the stupid part of the global community that it was ISIS, she added.

These are Ukrainians. And the fact that just yesterday, even before the arrests, even before the names of the perpetrators were found, Western intelligence services began to convince the world that it was ISIS - that's what gave them away.

This is not ISIS. This is a well-coordinated team of several other, also widely known, abbreviations.

*ISIS (also known as IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in many countries.

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The terrorists shot people in the back as they ran from the hall, and those fleeing could not leave the building due to the blocked doors, concertgoers at the Crocus City Hall told Sputnik.

"They were shouting in the hall: "Down! Get down!" and "Don't move!" in the hall. Shots were fired behind my back, they were shooting in the back [of the people]," one of the eyewitnesses told Sputnik.

"They were shouting. They were shooting from behind and shouting: "Everybody stay down, nobody move." I don't know how we managed to get out [of the hall], we were sitting not far from the door, fortunately the door was open," her friend said.

Another eyewitness sent Sputnik a video of the evacuation: it took a while for people to get out of the building after leaving the hall, because one of the exits was closed.

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Even after the terrorists were detained on their way to the border with Ukraine, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, still denies Kiev's involvement in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

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France strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall and expresses solidarity with the Russian people, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

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US failed to share Moscow terrorist attack preparation intel – CIA veteran

Whatever intelligence prompted the United States to warn its citizens earlier this month about the threat of terrorist attacks in Russia was apparently not shared by Washington with Moscow, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova‘s remarks shortly after demonstrate that the warning issued by the US Embassy in Moscow served as a dead giveaway that the United States “had not shared this intelligence with the Russians.”

“If we had information about a terrorist attack getting ready to be launched inside Russia, we'd contact the FSB, we'd contact the Foreign Ministry and have that information passed to them so that they could take action.

Apparently that was not done in this case, because if it had been done, I don't think the spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry [Maria Zakharova] would have been saying what she said,” Johnson explains.

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The number of victims of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall has reached 143 people, reported Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya.

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❗️The Russian Army has liberated Krasnoye village in the Donetsk area and improved the tactical situation along the front line.

🇷🇺🪖 Other statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Russian forces defeated two Ukrainian brigades in Rabotino and Tokarevka. Ukrainian losses amounted to 40 soldiers;

▪️Near Avdeyevka, Ukrainian losses amounted to 350 soldiers;

▪️In the Donetsk area, Russian forces repelled four attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 200 soldiers and a Grad system;

▪️The Russian Army destroyed two S-300 air defense missile launchers and hit a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries;

▪️Russian air defenses destroyed 171 drones and shot down 29 missiles from the HIMARS and Vampire systems.

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Moscow Crocus City Hall attack: Latest news you need to know

▪️Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov reported the arrest of 11 people in connection with the terrorist attack to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including all four terrorists directly involved in it. The suspects were detained in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine;

▪️The number of those killed in the March 22 attack has soared to 143, including three children, with 107 more sent to hospital;

▪️The death toll from the attack is expected to increase, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the causes of deaths are gunshot wounds and poisoning by combustion products;

▪️The FSB said that the suspects planned to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border and that they had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side of the border.

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"They didn't discriminate. They just went around and shot people like they were having fun."

A witness to yesterday's events at Crocus City Hall recounted the details of the tragedy.

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White House actions imply knowledge of Moscow terrorist attack's masterminds and perpetrators — CIA veteran

A former CIA intelligence officer and US Department of State official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik that he finds it noteworthy that the Biden administration rushed to “try to distance Ukraine” from the March 22 terrorist attack in Moscow, noting that it “implies a level of knowledge about who did carry it out and who funded it, who was behind it.”

If Russia believes that the United States was somehow involved in the attack, Johnson warns, “there will be hell to pay, especially for CIA and US military officials, officers and enlisted personnel that happened to venture into Ukrainian territory.”

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❗️The Russian Consulate in Sydney has lowered the flag to half mast in memory of the victims of last night's Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow.

⚡️Locals are welcome to leave flowers and written condolences at a makeshift memorial at the gates. 🙏

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One of the terrorists detained on suspicion of the attack at Moscow's Crocus City Hall said he had been offered half a million rubles to kill people.

The detainee confessed that the curators had given him the task of killing everyone in the hall.

He also admitted that he flew from Turkiye on March 4, according to the video of the interrogation published by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group.

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⚡️Putin will address Russians after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in the Moscow region

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LIVE NOW: Putin's address regarding the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall in Moscow

Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

Vladimir Putin called what happened in Crocus City Hall a bloody and barbaric terrorist attack.

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Putin: dozens of peaceful, innocent people became victims of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.

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