Former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton voiced concerns to Newsmax on Tuesday about the identity of the perpetrators behind the recent attack in Moscow, suggesting ISIS-K involvement based on available evidence.
“Well, all we have, obviously, is what’s been made publicly available, but the people that have been arrested that we’ve seen are from Tajikistan, which is a long way from Ukraine,” he said on “Eric Bolling The Balance.”
Bolton emphasized the significance of scrutinizing the individuals arrested in connection with the attack, highlighting their origins and the absence of ties to Ukraine.
“It would be consistent with prior Islamic terror attacks inside Russia that ISIS-K would reach out and try and do this. I haven’t heard any evidence of Ukrainian involvement or ties to Ukraine by these folks,” he added.
In response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertions blaming Ukraine for the attack, Bolton asserted that such claims could serve Putin’s political agenda by deflecting attention from security vulnerabilities in Moscow.
“Putin has said that Ukraine was responsible because it suits his purpose to try and hide the weakness that this attack exposed his inability to defend targets in Moscow and gives him some justification to increase the tax on civilian targets in Ukraine,” Bolton reasoned.
Bolton underscored the potential threat posed by ISIS-K, citing prior attacks in Iran and Afghanistan as evidence of their operational capabilities.
The former ambassador argued, “The first was an attack on a memorial service inside Iran for Qasem Soleimani. Now what? That demonstrates the capability to do pretty sophisticated operations in two widely disparate kinds of places.”
Addressing the possibility of ISIS-K operatives operating within the United States, Bolton urged vigilance, drawing parallels between the porous southern border and the potential for infiltration by extremist elements.
“It’s not the United States. But you know, these folks would have crossed Russia’s big southern border to get into Russia to go to Moscow. They could come across our southern border, too,” he warned.
However, Bolton also acknowledged the possibility of Russian involvement, citing historical instances of Russian security forces manipulating terrorist incidents for political ends.
“Look, I don’t put anything past Putin. We saw how Russian security forces behaved several years back in the Chechen attack on the Nord-Ost theater also in Moscow, so the Russians trying to gin up a terrorist attack for their own internal purposes is possible,” he said.
Bolton continued, “But if there’s evidence that we can find that shows it’s a Russian false-flag operation, I think that’s important to tell the Russian people about” it.
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