Moscow has demanded that Western countries investigate the organization and financing of terrorist activities targeting the nation
Russia has sent official inquiries to the judiciaries of the US, Germany, France and Cyprus, demanding that they investigate the alleged involvement of their intelligence services, and other entities and individuals, in organizing and funding terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation.
The appeal
The appeal was originally submitted to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office last month by a group of State Duma deputies several days after the attack on Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, which they described as yet another “manifestation of the inhumanity, hatred and cruelty” of Russia’s “external enemies.”
The authors of the document suggested that only Western politicians could have had an interest in such an attack, and insisted that the “international terrorism of the collective West must be stopped.”
To this end, the lawmakers demanded an investigation into the possible involvement of foreign intelligence services and individuals in organizing and financing acts of terrorism in Russia.
Basis for appeal
The deputies cited a UN Security Council resolution, as well as several international anti-terrorism conventions, which have been ratified by the US, France, Germany and Cyprus, as the basis for their demands.
They pointed out that under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, all states are required to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts, and to freeze assets and funds of any persons guilty of terrorism.
According to the 1977 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, which has also been ratified by Ukraine, any persons who have committed an act of terror are also extraditable to a requesting state, the lawmakers noted.
Under the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, all member states are required to investigate any information about possible terrorism suspects present on their territory, with the aim of prosecuting or extraditing them.
List of crimes
The Russian lawmakers noted that the scale and consequences of recent terrorist attacks “demonstrate a certain involvement of representatives of specific foreign intelligence services in the process of their implementation.”
The most “notorious terrorist act of recent decades,” according to the deputies, is the 2022 destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which were built to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany.
In their appeal, the lawmakers listed a number of statements by top US officials, including President Joe Biden and former deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, as well as other findings related to the incident, to suggest that Washington played a direct role in organizing and carrying out the sabotage.
The members of parliament went on to accuse the Ukrainian intelligence services, which have been deeply involved with the CIA for the past decade, of carrying out a number of terrorist attacks against Russia.
These include the 2022 assassination of Daria Dugina – a journalist and the daughter of prominent Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin; the 2023 murder of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a bomb blast in a cafe in St. Petersburg; and the attempted killing of writer Zakhar Prilepin in May last year.
The deputies also pointed to the bombings of Russia’s Crimean Bridge, particularly the October 8, 2022 attack which saw a truck filled with explosives destroy several hundred meters of the roadbed, killing five civilians.
Other examples of Kiev’s continued terrorist activities, according to the deputies, are the numerous attacks on Russia’s border region of Belgorod, which have resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, including children as young as one.
In addition, the authors of the appeal pointed to the killing of US journalist Gonzalo Lira at a Kharkov detention center, as well as repeated attempts by Ukrainian security services to smuggle explosives into Russia with the intent to blow up energy and civilian infrastructure.
Sponsors
The members of parliament surmised that the sheer number of terrorist acts being carried out “presupposes the availability of some funding, including in cash, to avoid possible leaks of information,” and suggested that one of the key “private sponsors” of Kiev’s terrorist activities has been Nikolay Zlochevsky – the owner of gas company Burisma, which has direct ties to the Biden family.
In 2014, Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, was appointed to the Burisma board of Directors while his father served as vice president under Barack Obama and was in charge of Ukraine issues. Hunter’s appointment and subsequent dealings with the firm have since become the center of a corruption scandal, in which the Bidens are accused of engaging in corruption schemes, silencing witnesses, and shutting down criminal investigations against Burisma by forcing the sacking of Ukraine’s prosecutor general.
Russia’s Demands
The appeal concludes by demanding that foreign states assist Russia in its investigations into the organizing and financing of terrorism, and take steps to “identify, locate, block or arrest any funds used or allocated for the purpose of committing terrorist offenses” and bring all individuals and legal entities involved in such crimes to justice.
The deputies also called on the addressees to inform the public about the findings of their investigations, including all the facts, persons involved, and the decisions taken to hold them accountable.