White House urgently warns of potential terrorist attacks in Russia

Duty to warn. The United States says it has an obligation if the intelligence community can identify an imminent threat to a particular country.

The U.S. fulfilled that duty just two weeks after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly attack near Moscow. U.S. officials have warned Russia that extremists are about to plan such attacks, but the Kremlin has dismissed the warnings as an act of extortion and destabilization of Russian society. White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told VOA about the terrorist attack.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Voice of America: First, let’s talk about today’s new accusations coming out of Russia.Russian Federal Security Service [intelligence] The chief blamed Britain, the United States and Ukraine for the Moscow concert hall attack. What’s your response to that?

Kirby: Nonsense.

Voice of America: The United States has fulfilled its duty to warn its Russian counterparts of the impending threat. Why is it important for the US to warn Russia given that it is waging war against Ukraine and Russia has become a pariah in the world?

Kirby: Because innocent Russian people were going to be victims, and in fact they were, we took our responsibility to issue that warning very, very seriously. We have all kinds of problems with the way mr. [Vladimir] Putin is leading and governing, if you want to call it that, and we are certainly deeply concerned about the ongoing reckless and violent attacks on the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian infrastructure.

But we have no contradictions with the Russian people. We have information that they will put the Russian people, innocent Russians, at risk from terrorist threats. So you can bet we will notify the Russian authorities appropriately as we would any country.

Voice of America: I wonder what their reaction was like. Is this a thank you letter? Or they say, “This is all bullshit, can you handle it yourself?”

Kirby: I will not describe what the other party did with the information we provided. We believe we have provided useful information about what we believe to be an imminent terrorist attack. We are also warning Americans to stay away from public places like concert halls. So we communicated appropriately with our Russian counterparts very directly to make sure they got as much useful information as possible. What they did with it, or didn’t do with it, they have to talk about.

Voice of America: But can you confirm they received it?

Kirby: We know they received the message and understood it. Now what they’re doing with it is again letting them speak.

Voice of America: According to U.S. intelligence agencies, who was responsible for the attack? Is it the Islamic State? What was the motive behind the attack?

Kirby: ISIS took responsibility for the attack.

Voice of America:Islamic State-K?

Kirby: ISIS took responsibility for the attack.

Voice of America: Do you know the motivation for doing this?

Kirby: ISIS claimed responsibility. They all have goals. Again, I’m not going to dwell too much on intelligence issues. Islamic State took responsibility for the attack.

Voice of America: Continue to Ukraine.What are the chances of Congress voting to pass the supplementary bill? [budget to assist Ukraine] Once lawmakers return from their break?

Kirby: Well, we hope they will. I can’t predict what the House will do.This will be decided by the Speaker [Mike] Johnson, now is his time to show leadership. We knew that if you put it on the floor, it would get an enthusiastic vote.

Ukraine and Ukrainian battlefield commanders will have the weapons and capabilities they need to better defend themselves, particularly in the eastern Donbass, where Russian forces continue to try to make progress on Avdievka’s westward push. So it’s past time for us to provide additional security assistance to Ukraine and it’s past time for this supplement to be adopted. So we strongly urge Speaker Johnson to put this before the vote and let’s get started.

Voice of America: Speaker Johnson may consider the possibility of providing a loan or other form of lease-lease arrangement to Ukraine to provide it with weapons with the expectation of being repaid, The Hill reported. Is this government willing to accept this option as an alternative to the supplementary package?

Kirby: Our focus is on getting the supplement passed. As I said before, the speaker also knows this and if he puts it on the floor, it will be approved. It has votes. This is the best way to support Ukraine.