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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Putin: I am sure that doctors will do everything possible and impossible to save the lives of the victims of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall

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Vladimir Putin on the Moscow Crocus City Hall terrorist attack:

▪️What happened in Crocus City Hall a bloody and barbaric terrorist attack

▪️Dozens of peaceful, innocent people became victims of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall

▪️I am sure that doctors will do everything possible and impossible to save the lives of the victims of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall

▪️Investigative and law enforcement agencies will do everything to clarify all the details of the attack

▪️It is obvious that we are faced with a planned mass murder of civilians

▪️Criminals went to kill in cold blood, shoot Russians at point-blank range, as the Nazis once did

▪️All the perpetrators, organizers and financiers of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall will be justly punished

▪️We will identify and punish everyone who is behind the attack

▪️We know what the threat of terrorism is, and we look forward to working with all states that share our pain

▪️Terrorists will face retribution and oblivion

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Vladimir Putin addressed Russians after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in the Moscow region.

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❗️WATCH: Vladimir Putin’s speech to the nation in connection to the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

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🚀 A Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Video by a Sputnik correspondent

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❗️The death toll from the terrorist attack increased to 133 during the clearing of rubble in the Crocus City Hall. Searches continue, the Investigative Committee of Russia reported.

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Scott Ritter: Evidence points to Ukraine and the CIA in Moscow terror attack

“If this was something planned by Ukraine, then it means it was something planned by Ukraine under the direction of the CIA to carry out an American policy objective, which seeks the strategic defeat of Russia,” the former US Marines intelligence officer said in a video comment for Sputnik.

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