BOSTON – A Massachusetts congressman says Russian intelligence officials believe if U.S. authorities had acted on their detailed warnings about Tamerlan Tsarnaev wanting to join an Islamic insurgency, the Boston Marathon bombings could have been averted.
Democratic U.S. Rep. William Keating made the comments Thursday in Moscow after a series of meetings with officials of the Russian Federal Security Service.
Keating tells The Boston Globe the counterintelligence officials showed him specific information that convinced them Tsarnaev “had plans to join the insurgency” in Dagestan, in southern Russia.
Keating was in Moscow as part of a congressional delegation discussing counterterrorism cooperation.
He said better information sharing might have averted the April 15 explosions that killed three and injured more than 260.
The FBI and CIA did not respond to Globe requests for comment.
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