Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden were shown ‘burning in hell’ on the front page of Russian state newspaper with the headline blaming the trio for the Moscow concert hall massacre.
The bizarre cover of Arguments and Facts saw a giant fiery box in the centre of the page, depicting images of the Western leaders – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – set alight.
In a clear attempt from Russia to point the finger of blame at Ukraine and the West, following the catastrophic Crocus City attack on March 22, the extraordinary image was plastered onto 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 organised it.
‘May they burn in hell.
The bizarre cover of Arguments and Facts saw a giant fiery box in the centre of the page, depicting images of the Western leaders. The headline included the phrase: ‘May they burn in hell’
‘All this about Islamic State is rubbish. Let them tell this to each other,’ it continued.
Judging by the image whipped up by the Moscow government-owned newspaper, by ‘them’ they are referring to the six figures seen ‘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 a previous speech he has delivered.
Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, and Emmanuel Macron, President of France, also made an appearance in the middle of the burning group.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson make up the far right side of the flame-ridden photo.
Following on from the front page is an entire article alleging the Wests’ link to the terrorist attack.
One article headline reads: ‘An American footprint in the Crocus tragedy?’
It argues: ‘Terrorism was the standard tool of the West for decades’.
The bizarre blame-game comes even after the Islamic State admitted to carrying out the attack on the Crocus City concert hall, in Krasnogorsk.
There is no evidence of Ukraine or the West being involved in the massacre, which left at more than 140 people dead and around 180 injured.
This wasn’t the only Russian front page to throw accusations at the West regarding their involvement in the attack, however.
The front page of Komsomolskaya Pravda, a daily Russian tabloid, carried the front page headline: ‘In Ukraine they were preparing to give the terrorists a hero’s welcome home’ – a statement allegedly said by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) director Alexander Bortnikov.
In the article that follows, he responds to a question on whether he thinks the US, Britain and Ukraine are responsible for the attack with: ‘We think so’.
He also made claimed in the government-owned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazette: ‘The Ukrainian side has been involved in training militants in the Middle East’.
The article is littered with ‘expert opinions’ that pin the blame for the cruel attack on the West, with one ‘former British MP George Galloway’ allegedly saying he believes ‘the US, its Nato allies and its puppet-run state Ukraine are indeed responsible for the mass killing’.
The paper alleged his ‘evidence’ was the ‘ex US President Barack Obama’s meeting with the British politicians and security officials at Downing Street three days before the terrorist attack’.
It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed revenge after brutal attack on the Moscow venue.
The 71-year-old tyrant revealed that the four assailants that carried out the ‘barbaric terrorist act’ had been ‘captured and detained’ and warned that all those responsible ‘would be punished’.
Russian law enforcement revealed pictures and names of the four suspects: Makhmadrasul Nasridinov, 27, Rivozhidin Ismonov, 51, Shokhindzhonn Safolzoda, 21, and Rustam Nazarov, 29.
Russian media share pictures of four suspected terrorists, in the Crocus concert hall massacre in Moscow, giving their names as (clockwise from the left) Makhmadrasul Nasridinov, 27, Rivozhidin Ismonov, 51, Shokhindzhonn Safolzoda, 21, Rustam Nazarov, 29
Images of the suspected gunmen who opened fire at Crocus City Hall, in Krasnogorsk, Moscow
The burnt remains of the Crocus City Hall concert hall following the March 22 massacre
On March 22 the four gunmen dressed in combat gear opened fire at the Crocus City Hall, before setting it alight.
Putin said the attackers had sought 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 obvious that we are faced not just with a carefully and cynically planned terrorist attack, but with the organised mass murder of peaceful defenceless people.
‘The criminals were cold-blooded and purposefully going to kill, shoot our citizens at point-blank range – our children.
‘Like the Nazis who once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they planned to arrange a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation.
‘All the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished.
Russian investigators worked inside Crocus City Hall concert venue following the terrorist attack
‘Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them. I repeat, we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people’.
However, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which they claimed came ‘within the context of a raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting Islam’.
After admitting their involvement, the terrorist group released a gruesome video taken from the bodycam of one of the attackers, which showed people getting gunned down with automatic rifles and one concertgoer getting their throat cut.