Vladimir Putin has said the gunmen who carried out the terror attack at a concert hall in Moscow that killed more than 130 people last week were ‘radical Islamists’ as he insists the terrorists had been attempting to ‘flee to Ukraine.’
An Islamic State (IS) affiliate group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack last Friday night but so far Putin has refrained from mentioning IS as the culprits.
Speaking in a meeting with government officials, Putin said the killings were carried out by extremists ‘whose ideology the Islamic world has been fighting for centuries’.
He stopped short of saying who ordered the attack, but said it was necessary to find out ‘why the terrorists after committing their crime tried to flee to Ukraine and who was waiting for them there’.
After the IS affiliate claimed responsibility, US intelligence backed up their claims. French President Emmanuel Macron said France has intelligence pointing to ‘an IS entity’ as responsible for the Moscow attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the killings were carried out by extremists ‘whose ideology the Islamic world has been fighting for centuries’ he has so far refrained from saying IS were responsible for the attack
Murodali Rachabalizod, 30, appeared in court with a bandage strapped to his severed ear. A graphic video shows the moment Rachabalizod had his ear cut off by a soldier who then force-fed it to him
The fire damaged Crocus City Hall. The attack on Friday night on the western outskirts of Moscow left 137 people dead and more than 180 injured, proving to be the deadliest in Russia in years
Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to assign blame, urging reporters to wait for the results of the investigation in Russia. He also refused to comment on reports that the US warned authorities in Moscow on March 7 about a possible terrorist attack, saying any such intelligence is confidential.
Calls have mounted in Russia to harshly punish those behind the attack. Yesterday, four men were charged by a Moscow court on Sunday night with carrying out a terrorist attack.
At their court appearance, they showed signs of being severely beaten. One suspect, Murodali Rachabalizod, 30, appeared in court with a bandage strapped to his severed ear.
Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19 appeared in court in a hospital gown and in a wheelchair, accompanied by medical personnel, and sat with his eyes closed throughout. He appeared to have multiple cuts.
They appeared in court alongside Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32, and Shamsidin Fariduni, 25 who also appeared in court bruised and beaten.
Videos released during their capture by Russian soldiers shows them being beaten with the butts of the soldiers guns. A more graphic video shows the moment Rachabalizod had his ear cut off by a soldier who then force-fed it to him.
Civil liberties groups cited these as sign that Russia’s poor record on human rights under Putin was bound to worsen.
Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19 appeared in court in a hospital gown and in a wheelchair, accompanied by medical personnel, and sat with his eyes closed throughout
Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, a suspect in the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, sits behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants at the Basmanny district court in Moscow
Shamsidin Fariduni, 25 who also appeared in court bruised and beaten
Crocus City Hall was still smouldering hours after the attack on Friday
Team Against Torture, a prominent group that advocates against police brutality, said in a statement that the culprits must face stern punishment, but ‘savagery should not be the answer to savagery’.
It said the value of any testimony obtained by torture was ‘critically low’, and ‘if the government allows for torture of terrorism suspects, it may allow unlawful violence toward other citizens, too’.
Russian politicians have instead come out in favour of harsh punishments. Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the investigation is still ongoing but vowed that ‘the perpetrators will be punished, they do not deserve mercy’.
Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008 2012, had especially harsh comments about them.
He wrote on Telegram: ‘They have been caught. Kudos to all who were chasing them. Should they be killed? They should. And it will happen.
‘But it is more important to kill everyone involved. Everyone. Those who paid, those who sympathised, those who helped. Kill them all.’
The attack on Friday night on Crocus City Hall on the western outskirts of Moscow left 137 people dead and more than 180 injured, proving to be the deadliest in Russia in years. A total of 97 people remained in hospital, officials said.
As they mowed down concertgoers with gunfire, the attackers set fire to the vast concert hall, and the resulting blaze caused the roof to collapse.
The search operation will continue until at least Tuesday afternoon, officials said. A Russian Orthodox priest conducted a service at the site Monday, blessing a makeshift memorial with incense.
The four suspects were identified in the Russian media as Tajik nationals. At least two of the suspects admitted culpability, court officials said, although their conditions raised questions about whether their statements were coerced.
The attack was a major embarrassment for Putin as it occurred less than a week after he cemented his grip on Russia for another six years in a vote that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times.
Many on Russian social media questioned how authorities and their vast security apparatus that actively surveils, pressures and prosecutes critics failed to prevent the attack despite the US warning.
The attack was a major embarrassment for Putin as it occurred less than a week after he cemented his grip on Russia for another six years in a vote that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times
Putin with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008 2012, had especially harsh comments about the terror suspects. He wrote on Telegram: ‘But it is more important to kill everyone involved. Everyone. Those who paid, those who sympathised, those who helped. Kill them all’
A massive blaze is seen over the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow
IS, which fought Russian forces that intervened in the Syrian civil war, has long targeted the country. In a statement posted by the group’s Aamaq news agency, the IS Afghanistan affiliate said it carried out an attack in Krasnogorsk, the suburb of Moscow where the concert hall is located.
In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard, most of them Russian holidaymakers returning from Sharm El Sheikh.
The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in past years.
It has recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk