MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee said it has opened a criminal inquiry following an appeal from some State Duma lawmakers who suggested, in the wake of the recent attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, that officials from the US and other Western countries engage in financing terrorism.
"The main investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee has conducted an assessment of an appeal from a group of State Duma deputies and other persons suggesting that top officials from the US and NATO countries are engaged in the financing of terrorist activities. Based on its results, a criminal inquiry was initiated into a crime provided for in Part 4 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (financing of terrorism)," the agency said in a statement.
Investigators have established that the funds that were received through commercial organizations, such as the oil and gas company Burisma Holdings operating in Ukraine, have been used in recent years to carry out terrorist acts in Russia and abroad with the aim of taking out prominent political and public figures and causing economic damage.
"The investigation, in cooperation with other special services and financial intelligence, is checking the sources and further movement of funds in the amount of several million US dollars, and the involvement of specific persons employed by government agencies, nongovernmental and for-profit organizations in Western countries. In addition, through investigative and operational methods links are being established between perpetrators of terrorist attacks and their foreign handlers, organizers and sponsors," the statement said.
Earlier, the Investigative Committee started assessing an appeal from lawmakers relating to the organization of terrorist attacks in Russia by the US and other Western countries. The agency said the investigation will thoroughly examine the submitted data. The Prosecutor General's Office also noted that the agency will study the materials that were received from State Duma lawmakers that pertain to the organization and financing of some terrorist attacks in Russia, as well as the explosions at the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 underwater gas pipelines by persons and organizations located in the US, Germany, France and Cyprus. The agency said the materials will be carefully studied, which will be followed by considerations about whether mechanisms of international legal cooperation should be engaged.