Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the attack on the concert hall in suburban Moscow was carried out by Islamic militants on Monday but suggested that it benefitted Ukraine and that Kyiv may have played a role.
He said 11 people had been detained, including the four suspected gunmen, who he said had made their way to the Bryansk region and tried to slip into Ukraine.
In the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades, four men burst into the Crocus City Hall on Friday night, spraying bullets during a concert by the Soviet-era rock group Piknik.
The Russian President said that the motive of the attack was to ‘sow panic’ among Russian citizens and could also be intended to “show their own population that not all is lost for the Kyiv regime”, in a reference to Ukraine.
Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, told the Kremlin meeting the death toll had risen to 139, with 182 people wounded.
“We know that the crime was carried out by the hand of radical Islamists with an ideology that the Muslim world has fought for centuries. The question that arises is who benefits from this?” Putin asked, according to the report by Reuters.
“This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime. We know by whose hand the crime against Russia and its people was committed. But what is of interest to us is who ordered it,” he further added, while speaking at a meeting held after the attack to discuss measures taken in response to the attack.
Meanwhile, France joined the US in saying intelligence indicated Islamic State was responsible.
The US earlier said that it warned Russia under the ‘duty to warn’ protocol about an imminent attack and that intelligence indicates an Afghan affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), was responsible.
Moscow’s Basmanny district court remanded four men of Tajik origin on terrorism charges on suspicion of carrying out the attack. Three men were remanded in custody on suspicion of complicity. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack and has released what it says is footage from the massacre.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy derided Putin’s comments in his nightly video address, saying that for the Kremlin leader “everyone is a terrorist, except himself, though he has been thriving on terror for two decades.”
“When he is gone, the need for terror and violence will disappear with him,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine has denied any role in Friday’s shooting and Zelenskiy has accused Putin of seeking to divert blame.
‘Ear Cut, Stuffed Into Mouth’
Unverified videos of interrogations on social media showed one of the perpetrators ear cut off and stuffed into his mouth. Detained Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, leaned against a glass cage as the terrorism charge was read out. Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, his ear in bandages, remained sitting.
Muhammadsobir Fayzov appeared in hospital clothes in a wheelchair, his face covered in cuts. Shamsiddin Fariduni stood, his face bruised.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to answer a journalist’s question about whether they had been tortured.
The court remanded in custody two more Tajik natives – father and son Isroil and Aminchon Islomov – and another son, Dilovar, who has Russian citizenship, Interfax news agency said.
The Investigative Committee said it believed Aminchon and Dilovar had been recruited by Fariduni.
Russian media reported that Dilovar had owned a car used by the attackers. Aminchon asserted his innocence, Interfax said.
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