Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told NBC’s “Today Show” that Dzhokhar was “used” by his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been radicalized, and warned that they may have been part of a larger plot.
“He’s just another victim of his older brother. He victimized others, but he’s been used by his older brother,” Mr. Tsarni said in the Today interview. Mr. Tsarni, who lives in a suburb of Washington, D.C., is a brother of the Tsarnaevs’ father.
He said the last time he spoke with Tamerlan in 2009, he was “shocked” by his radicalization.
Tamerlan was killed in a police standoff Friday morning, while Dzhokhar was taken into custody Friday evening after being discovered hiding in a boat in a Watertown, Mass., backyard.
Mr. Tsarni said he believed the radicalization of Tamerlan happened in the U.S., not Russia or Chechnya, and believes the person who radicalized him was of Armenian descent.
Mr. Tsarni said he was glad Dzhokhar was captured alive, so that he has a “chance to ask for forgiveness” and to help investigators unravel the plot. He also warned that his nephews may have been part of a bigger plot. “I strongly believe they were just puppets and executors of something of bigger scale,’’ according to the Today writeup.
On Friday, Mr. Tsarni had insisted to reporters that what his nephews had done had not been about Chechnya or a cause but because the young men were “losers.”
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