Russian Newspaper: ‘Did Americans Plan the Paris Terror Attack?’

Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda suggests that America is responsible for the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, France as revenge for President Hollande publicly considering dropping sanctions on Russia. In another example of finding creative culprits to blame from the jihadist attack, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the West for the attacks while Melih Gökçek, mayor of Turkish town Ankara, claimed Israel caused the massacre.

Pravda’s front page asked their readers “Did the Americans Plan the Paris Terror Attack?” Their proof is from a scientist named Alexander Zhilin. From The Telegraph:

The headline relates to a page 7 interview with a political scientist called Alexander Zhilin, who links the murders of 16 people at Charlie Hebdo and a Kosher supermarket to disagreements between western governments about how to deal with sanctions against Russia.

The trigger, he claimed, was Francois Hollande’s suggestion on January 5 that sanctions imposed against Russia should be reconsidered.

Such dissent in the ranks, Mr Zhilin suggests, could not be tolerated by the shadowy warmongers who run the United States.

“This was not in Washington’s plans, which decided to use European resources to attack Russia,” he continued. “[To respond to this they used] Terror. It is cheap and effective.”

Pro-Kremlin station LifeNews interviewed Aleksei Martynov, the head of the International Institute of the New States, who implied America was behind the attacks. From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

In a somewhat disjointed argument, Martynov said at various moments that the attack was both a result of Europe’s souring ties with Moscow over the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine and that it may have been Washington’s way of pressuring Paris not to ease sanctions on Russia.

Erdogan stood next to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when he attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for attending the rally in Paris, claiming “he has killed 2,500 people in Gaza with state terrorism.” Erdogan made a similar argument, claiming Netanyahu “should first give an account for the children and the women” he allegedly killed. He also blamed the West’s attitude towards Muslim as a reason for the massacre.

“The West’s hypocrisy is obvious,” he said. “As Muslims, we’ve never taken part in terrorist massacres. Behind these lie racism, hate speech and Islamophobia. Please, the administrations in those countries where our mosques are attacked need to take measures. Games are being played with the Islamic world, we need to be aware of this. French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price. That’s very meaningful… Doesn’t their intelligence organisation track those who leave prison?”

Gökçek echoed Erdogan’s sentiments. He claimed Israel attacked France since the French government expressed “support for Palestine” when the “lower house of French parliament” voted to recognize the Palestinian state.

“Israel certainly doesn’t want this sentiment to expand in Europe,” he said. “That’s why it is certain that Mossad [Israel Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations] is behind these kinds of incidents. Mossad enflames Islamophobia by causing such incidents. Palestine being recognized as a state is why these [attacks] have taken place.”