“It is necessary to wait, what versions will be presented by the investigators, because there are different variants. If they do indeed point to an ISIS trail, then most likely this was also the case, although we at The Insider and at Spiegel have been watching for a year now how Russian military intelligence (FSB) for some purpose has been training young Afghans who were brought from Afghanistan to Russia,” the journalist continued.

“The question remains whether a Russian footprint in such a terrorist attack is possible. But most likely, if there is an Afghan trace, then one must look for the reason why Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) decided to attack Russia just now,” he pointed out.

Grozev stressed that if not ISIS, but the Russian Volunteer Corps or some Ukrainian forces are identified as the perpetrator of the attack, the situation will become more complicated.

In such a case, it would be much more likely that these accusations would be crafted by the FSB, one of the motives could be to create conditions for widespread mobilization, the journalist added.

U.S. warning

About two weeks ago, the U.S. side warned Russian services that documents showing that a terrorist attack against Russians by the so-called Islamic State of Khorasan Province was being prepared had been intercepted, the journalist said.

“We know that the Russian state responded that the information that was provided by the U.S. side was not specific enough,” the journalist added.

Grozev noted that later there were arrests of ISIS cell members in Russia.