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12:18 25.03.2024 •
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his nation in a televised address Saturday that 11 people have been detained in connection with Friday’s deadly attack on a popular Moscow concert venue, including the four gunmen who opened fire, killing at least 133,
Putin claimed that the assailants had been trying to escape via Ukraine, “where according to preliminary data, a window for them to cross the state border was prepared by the Ukrainian side.” Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement in the attack.
Late Friday, gunmen armed with automatic weapons attacked the Crocus City Hall — a massive shopping and entertainment venue on the outskirts of Moscow — and set the concert hall on fire. The assault followed U.S. government warnings this month about a “planned terrorist attack” in the Russian capital.
Putin addresses 'bloodbath' concert attack, blames Ukraine.
In a televised speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the deadly attack on a popular Moscow concert venue which killed at least 130 on March 22.
Putin called the attack a planned and organized mass murder of innocent and defenseless people, and he promised swift retaliation.
“The criminals in cold blood, purposefully went to kill and shoot at point-blank range our citizens and our children, as the Nazis did who committed massacres in the occupied territories. They planned to stage a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation,” he said. “All perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of this crime will be fairly and unavoidably punished, whoever they are or whoever directs them.”
The U.S. government issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7 that described the risk of a “planned terrorist attack in Moscow — potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Friday.
“The U.S. Government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its long-standing ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson said.
Accusations of responsibility have swirled in the wake of the attack, with several senior Russian officials, including former president Dmitry Medvedev, appearing to blame Kyiv and threatening harsh retaliation.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) public relations office said Saturday that the assailants were “intending to cross the border into Ukraine,” where they had contacts.
Makeshift memorials and billboards with a single candle and the words “we mourn” have appeared in cities and highways across Russia to mark Friday’s attack. People stood in long lines throughout the capital Saturday to donate blood. The Russian Foreign Ministry has ordered the lowering of flags on buildings of Russian embassies abroad.
Putin has called for a national day of mourning to be held on Sunday.
More than one branch of the terrorist group Islamic State (Isis – banned in Russia) may have perpetrated the murderous attack on Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall based on circumstantial evidence, according to security analysts.
The claim of responsibility by Isis should be taken at face value because it was issued through the group’s usually reliable official media wing, they said.
“There is no question as to the authenticity of the statement, only as to how direct the connection is between Isis leaders and the actual assailants,” said Evan Kohlmann, a New York-based terrorism analyst and CEO of Cloudburst, a cyber intelligence consultancy.
Russia has launched investigations into the attack in Moscow. Its FSB security service is pointing the finger at Ukraine’s involvement, saying “all four terrorists” among 11 suspects behind the attack had contacts in Ukraine and were heading to the Ukrainian border when they were arrested. A spokesman for Kyiv’s military spy agency dismissed claims of Ukrainian involvement. But it is unclear for now which branch or branches of the Isis global network carried out the attack in Moscow because the terrorist group failed to identify the perpetrators in the claim issued through its Amaq News Agency.
Al-Ain (UAE)
An article "Terrorist attack in Moscow. Ukraine on the Russian guillotine?" examines claims of involvement of ISIS (banned in Russia) and comes to the conclusion that this is an unlikely option - there are too many discrepancies between the actions of the militants in Crocus and the terrorist attacks of ISIS: The text [allegedly published on behalf of ISIS] used words such as " urgent" and "source of security", which had never been seen before, and the name of the Amaq agency itself was not translated into English, as it had previously been done. Czech security expert Adam Dolnik, who has studied past Islamist attacks in India, Kenya, Russia and other countries, noted that this time the attackers developed an escape plan and tried to carry it out instead of continuing the attack. ISIS militants carry out attacks and are willing to die during such operations.
“They [the terrorists] tried to escape and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Putin said.
White House national security adviser John Kirby denied Kyiv's involvement in the attack. In this regard, Al Jazeera recalls that two weeks ago the US Embassy in Russia warned its citizens to refrain from crowded places. In particular, it was said about the concerts:
The US Embassy in Russia warned its citizens two weeks ago that “extremists are planning to attack large gatherings of people in Moscow, including concerts, in the near future.”
Al Mayadeen (Lebanon)
The warning initially issued by the US embassy was reiterated by the UK’s embassy, advising American citizens to steer clear of large gatherings for the next 48 hours.
As reported by The Telegraph, both the UK and US embassies in Russia sent out a warning that a terrorist attack could happen in Moscow within the next 24 hours.
The warning initially issued by the US embassy was reiterated by the UK’s embassy, advising American citizens to steer clear of large gatherings for the next 48 hours. It stressed that it is “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts”.
This comes a day after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) noted that its agents had dodged a potential ISIS terrorist attack on a Moscow synagogue, with state-owned media claiming those plotting the attack were killed. However, it remains unclear whether these incidents are related.
The embassy further sent an advisory to its citizens to “monitor local media for updates” and “be aware of your surroundings”. This rings quite the ironic bell.
Back in December, Russia’s Foreign Ministry stressed that the United States and Britain were “encouraging the Kiev regime to engage in terrorist actions.”
Earlier that year, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) voiced that the US defense is recruiting fighters to plot and execute terrorist attacks on Russian soil and that of CIS countries (such as Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Uzbekistan).
“According to credible data received by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, the US military is actively recruiting militants from jihadist groups affiliated with the Daesh (banned in Russia) and Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia and the CIS countries. Particular attention is paid to attracting people from the Russian North Caucasus and Central Asia to cooperation,” the SVR statement read.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to punish those behind a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall that has claimed 133 lives, after authorities said the four main suspects were caught near the border with Ukraine.
Putin linked what he called a “barbaric terrorist attack” to Ukraine in a video statement released Saturday, as he expressed deep condolences and declared Sunday a national day of mourning.
The perpetrators, he said, had “tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border.”
Ukraine has denied any connection with the attack, and warned that Russia could use it as an excuse to ramp up its invasion.
Also on Saturday, the Committee said that four men suspected of carrying out the attack had been taken into custody on Friday night near Russia’s border with Ukraine.
“Special services and law enforcement agencies in the Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine, detained four suspects from among those who committed a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall,” the Committee said.
This was also reported by Russian state media agency RIA Novosti, which said that after the attack the criminals “intended to cross the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side, the FSB said.” The FSB — Russia’s security agency — did not specify the nature of the alleged contacts.
The Belarus ambassador to Russia, meanwhile, said that Belarusian special services helped Russia prevent “terrorists” from escaping across the border Friday night.
In his video address, Putin said that a total of 11 people had been detained and that the FSB and other agencies were working to establish “who provided them with transport, escape planned routes from the crime scene, prepared caches, caches of weapons and ammunition.”
“All perpetrators, organizers and instigators of this crime will suffer fair and inevitable punishment,” he added. “Whoever they are, whoever guides them. I repeat: we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this attack on Russia, on our people.”
Russian state media has said all of those detained are foreign citizens.
The Guardian (Britain)
Putin suggested that Ukraine may have been involved in Friday’s attack at the Crocus City Hall just outside Moscow, saying that “the Ukrainian side” had “prepared a window” for the terrorists to cross the border from Russia into Ukraine before they were apprehended.
“They tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Putin said in a televised address.
Putin’s comments fell short of directly blaming Ukraine for the attack, as he said those responsible would be punished, “whoever they may be, whoever may have sent them”. The four suspected gunmen were all foreign citizens, Russia’s interior ministry later said. Putin said authorities detained a total of 11 people after the attack.
Russian officials and state news channels have been quiet about Islamic State’s claim to have carried out the attack, but a US official said Washington had intelligence confirming it.
The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, said the UK “condemns the deadly attack in the strongest possible terms”.
The attack on Friday came two weeks after western countries led by the US had issued terror warnings and told their citizens not to join public gatherings in Russia.
Defenddemocracy.Press (Greece)
The Russian authorities may not have come to a conclusion yet, leading Russian experts and parliamentarians may already blame the Ukrainian services (responsible for a series of murders and terrorist attacks on Russian territory, including the burning alive of dozens of protesters in Odessa), but for the radio operators in Athens there is no doubt that ISIS (banned in Russia) is behind the attack.
It doesn’t even occur to them to ask the simple question why genuine Islamic terrorists would think now of attacking Russia – which condemns Israel’s attacks on Gaza – and not Israel, which is at the same time carrying out genocide in Palestine. Why would they launch such an attack on Moscow at the moment the very survival of the Palestinian population in Gaza is in question, no one knows when they will possibly start dying like flies from hardship, and Israel and the “collective West” behind it are under enormous political pressure to stop the extermination of Gazans?
Obviously our “journalists” have not read anything – if you are informed, it is harder to misinform – about the fact that ISIS was probably created in Jordan ten years ago by US, British, Turkish and Israeli secret services, at least according to reports in Kurdish newspapers affiliated with the PKK.
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