By Athena Papakosta

The President of Russia Vladimir Putinon Monday night, with his new statements – addressed to government officials – he emphasized, for the first time, that the terrorist attack last Friday at Crocus City Hall in the Russian capital was carried out by radical Islamists while he reiterated that Kiev may be behind the attack which he now leaves behind 139 dead.

“This atrocity may be just one link in a whole series of efforts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 at the hands of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev,” he said while, – after the United States admitted that the ISIS is behind the attack – he referred to the Islamist element for the first time explaining that “we know that the crime was committed by radical Islamists who have an ideology that the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries.”

Linking Islamic terrorism and Kyiv, the Russian president explained that “it is necessary to answer the question why the terrorists, after their crime, tried to flee to Ukraine. Who was waiting for them there?’ noting, also, that “many questions are raised” as “those who support the Kiev regime do not want to be accomplices and supporters of terrorism”.

For its part, Kiev denies any involvement in the attack.

The Russian president in his remarks openly questioned who benefits from the terrorist attack, noting that those who planned the attack “hoped to sow the panic and the discord in our society, but they met with unity and determination to resist this evil.”

As analysts note, Moscow’s insistence that the “Kiev regime,” as it calls it, is behind the attack is primarily intended to domestic consumption since it further demonizes Ukraine in the eyes of the Russian people and provides the Russian government with yet another alibi in order to further escalate its assault on the ongoing war against Volodymyr Zelensky’s country – even having to order a new wave of conscription into the country.

However, Vladimir Putin’s reference to the Islamist element for the first time does not go unnoticed by analysts who are cautiously trying to guess what the next day.

The president of Russia has already said that more attacks may follow speaking at the same time about possible involvement of the West while, in his last statements, he avoided standing on Washington’s warning on March 7 about the threat of terrorist acts “at large gatherings of people in Moscow, including concerts”.

At the same time, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron said all indications were that the attack was carried out by the Islamic State group, telling Russia it would be “cynical and counterproductive” to try to blame Ukraine.

It is already recorded in many countries on the Old Continent worry and vigilance for possible terrorist attacks against the background of last Friday’s terrorist attack in Moscow and the claim of responsibility by the Islamic State branch in Khorasan.

THE France has already raised the alarm level to the highest level while the Germany stresses that the biggest Islamist threat comes from the Islamic State offshoot.