Russia-Afghanistan relations in the aftermath of the Moscow attack

The horrific terrorist attack against the Crocus concert hall in Moscow has been claimed by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the same Afghanistan-based terrorist group that bombed the Kabul airport's Abbey Gate in August 2021, killing 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghans. The United States has also attributed the attack to ISKP. Yet to deflect attention from the Russian security services' incompetence and to instrumentalize the attack to increase Vladimir Putin's authoritarian grip and war efforts in Ukraine, Russia's propaganda is seeking to link the attack to Ukraine. This disinformation is part and parcel of Russia's (and Iran's) persistent lies that the United States created ISKP, as Russian interlocutors for years claimed to me and others.