Ukraine's special services facilitated the Crocus terrorist attack and radical Islamists prepared it, Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia Alexander Bortnikov said.
The FSB preliminarily received information about the involvement of Kiev in the terrorist attack in the Moscow region, but the customer of the terrorist attack in "Crocus" has not yet been identified, Bortnikov noted.
It is necessary to declare the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) a terrorist organization, the FSB director noted, adding that the terrorist threat in Russia persists. The terrorist attack in Crocus was necessary for Western special services and Ukraine to shake up the situation and create panic in Russian society, the FSB director underlined.
Now his agency, together with partner special services from friendly countries, is working to identify all the participants in the terrorist attack, he noted.
According to FSB, a total of 11 individuals were detained in connection with the attack, including four people, who were directly involved in it. These four men were detained in the Bryansk Region, near the border with Ukraine.
Russian Investigative Committee said that the death toll from the attack is 139 people, with 182 people injured. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the terrorist attack "bloody and barbaric" and declared March 24 a day of nationwide mourning.
Earlier, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev also said that Ukraine is behind the deadly terrorist attack.