Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said for the first time that “radical Islamists” were behind last week’s attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, but suggested they were linked to Ukraine somehow.
Eleven people have been detained in connection with the attack, which saw camouflaged gunmen storm into Crocus City Hall, open fire on concertgoers and set the building ablaze, killing at least 139 people.
“We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries,” Putin said in a televised meeting.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, the Russian leader said that “many questions” remained unanswered, including why the attackers tried to flee to Ukraine — a claim that Kyiv has rejected.
“Of course, it is necessary to answer the question, why, after committing the crime, the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine. Who was waiting for them there?” Putin asked.
“This atrocity might be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014,” he said, referring to Ukraine and its allies.
Ukraine has described accusations it was involved as absurd.
“Putin was talking to himself again, and it was again broadcast on television. Again, he blames Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his evening address.
The Islamic State group has said several times since Friday last week that it was responsible and Islamic State-affiliated media channels have published graphic videos of the gunmen inside the venue.
When asked about Islamic State’s claimed involvement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said that an investigation was still ongoing.
Officials expect the death toll to rise further, as rescuers were searching the site for remains on Monday and 97 people were still in hospital.
The Kremlin has expressed confidence in the nation’s security agencies, despite swirling questions over how they failed to thwart the massacre amid public and private warnings by the US’ intelligence apparatus.
In a series of late-night hearings in Moscow that ran into the early hours of Monday, four of the suspects — with bruises and cuts on their swollen faces — were dragged in to the capital’s Basmanny District Court before dozens of reporters.
FSB officers wheeled one into the hearing on a gurney, his eyes barely open.
Peskov refused to comment on reports and videos on social media that showed bloody interrogations of the suspects after they were arrested on Saturday.
The court identified them as Muhammadsobir Fayzov, Shamsidin Fariduni, Rachabalizoda Saidakrami and Dalerjon Mirzoyev. Russian state media said they were all citizens of Tajikistan.
Two of them pleaded guilty, the court said.
Three other suspects, whom Russian media identified as family members Aminchon Islomov, Dilovar Islomov and Isroil Islomov, were remanded in pretrial detention on Monday.
One of those detained has Russian citizenship, Interfax news agency reported.
All of those held in custody have been charged with terrorism and face up to life in prison.
The Kremlin has pushed back at suggestions that the death penalty would be reintroduced.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
RSS