Vladimir Putin's inner circle 'saying same thing' about horror Moscow attack that killed over 140

Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine

Members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle don’t support the Russian President’s claims that Ukraine was to blame, say reports.

Few of Russia ‘s influential politics and business people think Kyiv had anything to do with the horror attack – the worst one on Russia in 20 years, and which was killed more than 140 people.

Officials were shocked at how Russia’s top security service didn’t stop the attack at Crocus City concert hall – especially since the US had given them a warning, Bloomberg reports. Putin was there for discussions when it was decided there wasn’t any link between the attack (which ISIS said they carried out), and Ukraine, claims one source.

But Putin seems keen to still put the blame on Ukraine so he can get Russians to support the war over in east Europe, reports the Express. On Monday, three days after it happened, Putin admitted radical Islamists did the attack – but said Kyiv might still have had something to do with it.

He said: “We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists. We are interested in who ordered it.” The Russian leader has been spreading the same story since before Russia invaded Ukraine. He said: “This atrocity may be just one part in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime.”

Putin believes that Ukraine is full of Nazi forces trying to harm Russia. One of Putin’s oldest friends, council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, and the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, has publicly supported Putin’s story. Ukraine has said that Russia’s claims are “lies” and Washington has said there is no proof that Ukraine had anything to do with the attack that killed more than 140 people.

Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus and a close friend of Putin, seemed to question Putin’s story too – especially the claim that the four attackers were heading towards Ukraine when they were caught. He suggested they had first tried to cross into his country before realising “there was no way they could enter Belarus”.

Alongside IS saying they were responsible for the attack, growing evidence is said to have shown that the attack was planned by the Afghan branch of IS, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). On Sunday, four suspects who are citizens of Tajikistan appeared in court in Moscow charged over the attack.