Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden were shown ‘burning in hell’ on the front page of Russia’s state-run newspaper, with the headline blaming the trio for the Moscow concert hall massacre.
The bizarre cover of Arguments and Facts featured a giant fiery box in the center of the page with images of Western leaders – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – set on fire.
In an apparent attempt by Russia to point the finger at Ukraine and the West after the catastrophic attack on Crocus City on March 22, the extraordinary image was plastered on the front page.
Above the photo was a chilling headline that read: “We know the architects of the Crocus City terrorist attack. And we know who organized it.
‘May they burn in hell.
The bizarre cover of Arguments and Facts featured a giant fiery box in the center of the page with images of Western leaders. The headline contained the phrase: ‘May they burn in hell’
“All this about Islamic State is nonsense. Let them tell each other this,” the message continued.
Judging from the image conjured up by the Moscow government newspaper, ‘them’ refers to the six figures ‘burning in hell’.
On the far left is a photo of President Zelensky, with a stone-cold face.
He is placed next to US President Joe Biden, in a snap of what appears to be taken from an earlier speech he made.
Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, also appeared in the middle of the burning group.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson form the far right side of the flame-ridden photo.
A whole article follows from the front page claiming the Western link with the terrorist attack.
One article headline reads, “An American Footprint in the Crocus Tragedy?”
It argues: “Terrorism was the West’s default tool for decades.”
The bizarre blame game comes even after Islamic State admitted to carrying out the attack on the Crocus City concert hall in Krasnogorsk.
There is no evidence that Ukraine or the West were involved in the massacre, which killed more than 140 people and injured about 180.
However, this was not the only Russian front page to level accusations at the West about their involvement in the attack.
The front page of Komsomolskaya Pravda, a daily Russian tabloid, carried the headline: “In Ukraine they were preparing to give the terrorists a hero’s welcome home” – a statement said to have been said by Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
In the article that follows, he responds to the question of whether he thinks the US, Britain and Ukraine are responsible for the attack with: “We think so.”
He also claimed in the state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazette: “The Ukrainian side has been involved in training militants in the Middle East.”
It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed revenge following a brutal attack on the Moscow site.
The 71-year-old tyrant revealed that the four attackers who committed the “barbaric terrorist act” had been “captured and detained” and warned that all those responsible “would be punished”.
Russian police have revealed photos and names of the four suspects: Makhmadrasul Nasridinov, 27, Rivozhidin Ismonov, 51, Shokhindzhonn Safolzoda, 21, and Rustam Nazarov, 29.
Russian media share photos of four suspected terrorists in the Crocus concert hall massacre in Moscow, with their names as (clockwise from left) Makhmadrasul Nasridinov, 27, Rivozhidin Ismonov, 51, Shokhindzhonn Safolzoda, 21, Rustam Nazarov, 29
Images of the suspected gunmen who opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow
The burned remains of the Crocus City Hall concert hall after the March 22 massacre
On March 22, the four gunmen dressed in combat gear opened fire on the Crocus town hall before setting it on fire.
Putin said the attackers had tried to escape towards Ukraine and that preliminary information showed that some people on the Ukrainian side had prepared to let them cross the border from Russia.
He warned in a televised address to the nation on Saturday: ‘It is already clear that we are dealing not only with a carefully and cynically planned terrorist attack, but also with the organized mass murder of peaceful, defenseless people.
“The criminals were cold-blooded and deliberately planned to kill and shoot our citizens at close range – our children.
‘Just like the Nazis who once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they planned to stage a demonstrative execution, a bloody intimidation.
“All perpetrators, organizers and those who ordered this crime will be punished justly and inevitably.
Russian investigators worked in the concert hall of Crocus City Hall after the terrorist attack
“Whoever they are, whoever leads them. I repeat: we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists who prepared this atrocity, this attack against Russia, against our people.”
However, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said took place “in the context of a raging war between Islamic State and countries fighting against Islam.”
After admitting their involvement, the terror group released a gruesome video taken from the bodycam of one of the attackers, showing people being shot with automatic rifles and a concertgoer’s throat being slit.