Vladimir Putin’s aides have blamed the UK, the US and Ukraine for supposedly “facilitating” the attack on Moscow last week.
The mass shooting and subsequent fire killed more than 130 people, and injured more than 100 others, making it the worst assault within the country for the last two decades.
The Islamic State (IS) said four of its members were responsible shortly after the incident – but Russia has only just acknowledged their involvement.
And on Tuesday, without any evidence, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov told the state media Tass that Russia thinks the US, Britain and Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.
He said: “This is general information, but they have a long record of this sort.
“We believe the action was prepared both by the radical Islamists themselves, and, of course, facilitated by Western special services, and Ukraine’s special services themselves have a direct connection to this.”
According to the Kyiv Post, he also said: “I’ll let you in on a little secret: they were going to be greeted as heroes on the other side.”
However, he added: “The one who ordered it has not been identified yet.”
There is no evidence for these claims.
The US’s national security council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, said IS has “sole responsibility for this attack”, adding: “There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever.”
The White House is said to have warned Russia of the attack ahead of time, only to be dismissed by Moscow as fuelling “propaganda”.
But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed this week that Russia will handle the ongoing investigation “on our own”.
Taking aim at the West, he alleged: “It will clearly be rife with double standards and will most likely be aimed at promoting the theory the West wants, that the Islamic State terrorist group was behind it, and Ukraine had nothing to do with it.
“We don’t need such help. I’ll reiterate: we’ll handle this on our own.”
Russia has apprehended 11 people, including four gunmen, on suspicion of involvement in the attack.
Putin only acknowledged for the first time that it was in fact radical Islamists who were behind the attack.
Before that, in an address shortly after the event, Putin was quick to claim that Ukraine had prepared a “window” in the Russian-Ukraine border for the terrorists to cross without detection.
Ukraine has also dismissed such accusations as baseless.