© Sputnik/Maksim Blinov
On March 22, four gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall concert venue just outside Moscow, going on a shooting spree and setting fire to the building. The massacre resulted in 144 deaths.
The Afghanistan-based offshoot of the Islamic State terrorist group has claimed credit for the attack. However, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Aleksandr Bortnikov, has claimed that the US, UK, and Ukraine may be linked to the crime.
In a press release on Monday, the SVR claimed that it has received information that US-affiliated NGOs and media have been tasked with "removing from the international community any suspicions about the involvement of Vladimir Zelensky and his entourage in the crime."
The service suggested that the White House fears that the discovery of a "Kiev trace" in the attack would "highlight the terrorist nature of the Ukrainian regime" and derail Washington's attempts to increase support for Ukraine.
As an example of such attempts to cover up the story, the SVR claimed that American agencies are already trying to convince US allies and partners that the Afghan branch of Islamic State, Vilayat Khorasan, was responsible for the attack.
To reinforce this narrative the US has been "stuffing" the information field with stories about how Russia has long been the target of Islamic terrorists who seek revenge for the war in Chechnya in the early 2000s, for Moscow's support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and for establishing ties with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the SVR said.
The SVR reported further that Russian opposition figures who have left the country have also been ordered to "highlight the unfoundedness" of Moscow's alleged use of the terrorist attack as justification for its ongoing military operation in Ukraine.
However, despite its efforts, Washington's "propaganda rhetoric is not selling well," the agency said, claiming that the US has failed to achieve a uniform assessment of the tragedy, even among NATO and EU members.
"Washington began to shield Zelensky even before 'the ashes' of the burned Crocus City Hall had time to cool. Such haste seems reckless to many in the West, and suspicious to many in the East," it pointed out.
"By whitewashing the criminal Kiev regime, [the US] risks being suspected of involvement in international terrorism," the SVR warned.
Comment: The US is flailing about, hopelessly trying to control the narrative around the Crocus terrorist attack. It's not that different than its efforts in Ukraine to counter Russia.