After Moscow Terror, Kremlin Wages Mass Disinformation Campaign

Law enforcement officers are seen deployed outside the burning Crocus City Hall concert hall following the shooting incident in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024. Gunmen opened fire at a concert hall in a Moscow suburb on March 22, 2024 leaving dead and wounded before a major fire spread through the building, Moscow’s mayor and Russian news agencies reported. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP) (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Posted: March 25th, 2024

By Tom Nagorski

Tom Nagorski is the Managing Editor for The Cipher Brief. He previously served as Global Editor for Grid and served as ABC News Managing Editor for International Coverage as well as Senior Broadcast Producer for World News Tonight.

SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE ANALYSIS — Along with expressions of sympathy for the victims and pledges to bring the perpetrators to justice, Russia’s response to Friday’s deadly attack on a concert hall has been an across-the-board campaign of disinformation. The Kremlin and its surrogates spent the weekend suggesting – with no evidence – that Ukrainians or Americans, or both, were to blame for the worst terrorist attack in Russia in two decades.

As soon as Saturday morning, certain facts had emerged about the raid on the Crocus Concert Hall on Moscow’s outskirts: At least 137 people were dead and more than 150 others injured; gunmen had stormed the arena, shot at concertgoers, and set fire to the main building; the terrorist group ISK (Islamic State Khorasan) had claimed responsibility – a claim U.S. intelligence said was legitimate – and the group released videos taken by its operatives during the attack.

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