President Vladimir Putin has said the terrorist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall was carried out by Islamic extremists, but previously said Ukraine may have been involved in the shooting that killed 139 people. He reiterated his claim.
“We know that this crime was committed by Islamic extremists,” Putin said in a meeting with government officials late Monday.
“We are interested in who gave the order,” he said, adding that the shooting was part of a broader intimidation campaign by Ukraine.
“This atrocity may be just part of a series of attempts at the hands of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime, by those who have been at war with our country since 2014.”
Despite mounting evidence that the Islamic State’s Afghan branch, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), masterminded the attack, President Putin did not mention an Islamic State affiliate that claimed responsibility.
Kiev has denied involvement in the attack and accused Russia of falsely suggesting it was responsible for escalating fighting in Ukraine.
IS has claimed responsibility for the attack multiple times since Friday, and IS-affiliated media has released graphic footage of the militants inside the venue.
“The United States is trying to convince everyone that there are no traces of Kiev,” Putin said, referring to a U.S. statement that there was no indication that Ukraine was involved in the attack.
Putin later reiterated his earlier claim that the attackers had planned to flee to Ukraine before being arrested.
“Who was waiting for them there?” Putin asked.
President Putin’s statement on Monday appears to further lay the groundwork for blaming Ukraine for Russia’s worst terrorist attack in more than two decades. His comments came after the country’s state media stepped up efforts to link Ukraine to the shootings.
President Putin on Saturday claimed for the first time, without evidence, that Ukraine had supported the attackers and planned to “open a window” for the militants to escape.
U.S. intelligence agencies had warned that Russian IS cells were planning to target the concert venue, but President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s security services did not accept any threat from Western countries. He said he has not received any aid. “No, our security forces are operating on their own and assistance is not being considered at this time,” he said in a phone call with reporters.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned the US claim that IS was behind the attack. “Attention – I have a question for the White House: Is she really IIS? Why don’t you think about that again?” Zakharova said in the Komsomolskaya Pravda article.
Zakharova said the United States had received information that the terrorist group acted alone, adding that it was spreading a version of the Islamic State’s “bogeyman” to cover Kiev’s “ward”.
On Monday, France joined the United States in saying its intelligence services suggested the attack was carried out by Islamic State. French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters: “The information available to us, as well as our main partners, clearly shows that it was an Islamic State entity that instigated this attack.”
he said it would be “Cynical and counterproductive” He suggested that Moscow was in charge in Ukraine.
On Sunday, four suspects charged in the attack appeared in a Moscow court. The men were identified as Tajik nationals and detained for two months.
The court released a video showing police officers leading one of the suspects into court in handcuffs, as well as a photo of the same man sitting in a glass cage meant for defendants. One of the suspects was blindfolded and led into court. When he removed his blindfold, he saw a black eye. Another suspect was brought to court in a wheelchair.
According to TASS, the men, identified as Saidakrami Mrodari Ratchabarizoda, Dareljon Barotovich Mirzoev, Shamsidin Fariduni and Mohammad Sobir Faizov, were accused of causing death in a terrorist attack by a group of individuals. ” has been charged with. All four men pleaded guilty.
Limited details have been released about the background of the alleged shooter. Fariduni, 25, was working at a factory in Podolsk, a Russian city outside Moscow. The youngest of the group, 19-year-old Faizov, previously worked as a barber in a city northeast of Moscow. Turkish security officials told Reuters on Monday that two of the attackers left Turkey on the same flight on March 2 for Moscow. The official said they entered Turkey to renew their Russian residence permits but were not radicalized there. He said the attackers had been living in Moscow for a long time.
The men were arrested in the southern region of Bryansk, where authorities said they disabled the vehicle and captured several suspects who fled into nearby forests. A video has been released showing Russian security forces interrogating the men, with at least one of them speaking Tajik during the interrogation. Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry initially denied that the suspects were nationals.
President Putin and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon said in a telephone conversation on Sunday that they “pointed out that Russian and Tajik security authorities and relevant agencies are working closely together in counter-terrorism efforts, and that this effort will be strengthened.” Ta.
ISKP has previously been reported to have recruited radicalized nationals from Central Asia, including Tajikistan.
Some videos of the interrogation suggest the men were tortured by Russian security services. One video shared by a Russian blogger appears to show members of the security forces cutting off the ear of a man who will later be questioned in the attack and shoving it into his mouth. The footage also shows security forces hitting and kicking the suspect with the butt of a rifle as he lies in the snow.
Tanya Lokshina, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, said the video suggesting torture is “shocking but not surprising.”
Lokshina said Russian security services have a long record of torturing suspects but rarely release evidence to the public. “What’s different now is the clearly demonstrative nature of torture.”
On Monday, a Moscow court ordered three more men to be held in pretrial detention in connection with the shooting. The men have been charged with aiding and abetting terrorism and are said to have previously owned the car the attackers used to flee the scene.
The incident near Moscow was the deadliest attack on European territory claimed by IS and the deadliest terrorist attack by any Russian group since the siege of Beslan in 2004.
