Western news outlets were instructed to avoid providing information on the victims of Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow's suburbs, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated.
"We have noted the inadmissibility of demonstrating sympathy and humanism toward the Russian people. The West's attempts to distract the world community from the real organizers and beneficiaries are particularly cynical due to categorical instructions not to publish the true scale of the tragedy in the media, not to mention the number of victims of the terrorist attack, the dead children, and not to demonstrate the reaction of ordinary citizens to the incident," the ministry said on Telegram.
The Foreign Ministry stressed that the West wanted to avoid showing sympathy and humanism towards Russian people and prevent global audiences from feeling compassion and empathy toward the victims of the terror attack.
Officials further stated that Western media and politicians started a whitewashing campaign immediately after the terror attack in order to deny the role of Ukrainian secret services. The press was reportedly instructed to broadcast that it was ISIS* that organized that attack and neglected any possibility that jihadists were supported by Kiev or Western intelligence.
In addition, outlets were told to slam the course of the Russian investigation and promote the idea that Russian security services were somehow responsible for this atrocity.
On March 22, a group of militants stormed the Crocus Concert Hall using firearms and explosives. As a result of the terror attack, 144 people were killed, including children and whole families who came to attend the performance of a popular band.
The alleged perpetrators were detained the next day near the Ukrainian border where they were heading. Later, Russian law enforcers detained their accomplices. Preliminary investigations revealed that the men were heading to Kiev to receive payment, while no meaningful ties between these militants and ISIS were identified.
*ISIS (also known as ISIL/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.