This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Belarusian authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on March 26 that the gunmen who attacked a concert hall near Moscow last week tried to flee into his country but were unable to because of additional security measures.
Lukashenka was quoted by state news agency BelTA as saying the security measures were put in place along Belarus’s border with Russia when it became apparent the perpetrators had driven into the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders both Belarus and Ukraine.
When the attackers fled to the southwest out of Moscow into the Bryansk region, Belarus quickly set up checkpoints.
“That’s why they couldn’t enter Belarus. They saw that, so they turned away and went to the area of the Ukrainian-Russian border,” said the long-term ruler of the former Soviet republic, which is allied with Russia. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and I didn’t sleep for a day,” he added. “There was constant interaction.”
Putin has claimed the suspects wanted to flee to Ukraine and were expected there. Ukraine and the United States have rejected the claims, saying Ukraine had nothing to do with the attack in which at least 139 people were killed on March 22 at the Crocus City Hall entertainment venue.
Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the United States and other Western countries have said they consider that claim to be credible, but Russian officials continue to insist Ukraine is involved.
Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), on March 26 reiterated Putin’s claim that that not only Ukraine but the West had a role in the deadly attack.
Without offering any evidence, Bortnikov alleged that Western spy agencies also could have been involved in the attack even as he acknowledged receiving a tip from the United States early in March about a potential terrorist attack.
Lukashenka’s version of events echo the comments of Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Dzmitry Krutoy, who stated earlier that Belarusian special services “helped Russia fulfill the task of preventing terrorists from escaping across the border.”
Political analyst Artyom Shreibman told RFE/RL that the statements made by Lukashenka and Krutoy were “very contrary to what Russia says.” If the attackers had wanted to flee to Ukraine, then Belarus would have had “absolutely nothing to do with it.”
Shreibman said any involvement of Ukraine means that it would have been necessary to come up with an exit route in advance.
He said Putin and other Russian government officials are trying more and more to promote the “Ukrainian trail” in this terrorist attack.
“The longer they talk about it, the more this contradiction will be revealed,” he said, adding that Lukashenka “now needs to pray” that no one asks Putin about what he (Lukashenka) is saying about being the one who turned the terrorists around.
He also said it was a “mystery” to him how the alleged attackers traveling in Bryansk would have known about the additional security checkpoints, saying that it appeared to be Lukashenka’s way of “playing an evil joke” and expressing his “Soviet local desire for recognition” from Moscow.
