One of the attackers who carried out the mass murder at Moscow's Crocus City Hall claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) had pro-Ukrainian content on his phone, Russian investigators said, AFP reported.
ISIS has repeatedly claimed responsibility for the March 22 attack that killed more than 140 people, but Moscow has been trying to link Kiev and the West to the attack despite their denials.
Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of trying to profit from the tragedy by insinuating, without providing evidence, that Kiev was behind the terrorist attack, Russia's deadliest in two decades.
Gunmen in camouflage stormed the Crocus City Hall building on the outskirts of Moscow, then set fire to the building. More than a dozen suspects have been arrested, including the four attackers, who are from the Central Asian country of Tajikistan.
Russian investigators said phone records from one of the suspects showed that on the morning of February 24 this year - the second anniversary of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine - he had been looking for pictures of Crocus City Hall and sending them to other people.
The report says the suspect "confirmed all of this in his testimony."
Questions have been raised about the validity of the interrogations of those arrested by Moscow after the four gunmen were brought to a Moscow court with visible signs of a brutal beating.
Russia's Investigative Committee also said it had found photos on the same phone showing men in camouflage clothing holding the Ukrainian flag in front of destroyed buildings.
"These data may indicate a link between the attack" and the conflict in Ukraine, it said.
The United States said it warned Russia publicly and privately in early March that extremists were planning an attack on a concert hall in Moscow.
Unnamed U.S. intelligence officials told U.S. media after the massacre that they had told Moscow it was the Crocus City concert hall that ISIS was planning to attack.
Russia dismissed those warnings. Just three days before the attack, President Vladimir Putin accused Washington of "blackmail" and attempting to "intimidate" Russians. / BGNES
