GOP House Candidate Suggests CIA, Ukraine Involved In Moscow Attack

A Republican candidate for Congress in Washington state has suggested the CIA and Ukraine may be responsible for a terrorist attack last week that killed 143 people in Moscow, echoing a theory pushed, without evidence, by Kremlin propagandists.

Joe Kent, a conservative firebrand in a likely rematch with first-term Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whom he narrowly lost to in 2022, made the comments in a Tuesday appearance on “Real America” on the right-wing One America News Network.

Kent, a retired Special Operations veteran and former foreign policy adviser in the Donald Trump administration, suggested the attack, which Islamic militants claimed responsibility for, could in fact have been orchestrated by Western interests and added that it was unlikely the truth would ever be known. He said Islamic militants had grievances with Russia that would lead them to attack, but he also said it was plausible the attack was a Western plot.

“If the Ukrainians were using CIA or [British intelligence agency] MI6 money, which they have a lot of access to, and they were tasked with conducting sabotage behind Russian lines, I mean, this is too easy. You can get access to these jihadis because they’re looking to work for the highest bidder, so it does kind of make sense,” Kent said.

Kent made a similar statement on “The Nunn Report” podcast the next day.

“If you’re looking for surrogates and you’re looking for someone who can do dirty work for you, if I’m a Ukrainian intel guy, I’m going to be, ‘Hey, these Muslims that have already an ax already to grind with Putin and with Russians, they might be a good pool for us to recruit from.’ So it’s not too much of a leap to think that,” he said on the right-wing podcast.

The Kent campaign did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.

A branch of ISIS, an Islamic militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack at a Moscow concert hall in which attendees were shot and the building was set here