AFP Following the incident that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for, Russia held a national day of sorrow on Sunday. Four men are accused of being involved in a massacre at a Moscow concert hall that murdered 137 people. They were remanded in custody.
The Basmanny district court in Moscow has accused all four of the suspects with terrorism, and they might all spend the rest of their lives behind bars. Until May 22, their custody is scheduled, although it could be prolonged based on when their trial is scheduled.
Two of the defendants entered guilty pleas, and one of them—a Tajikistani—had “entirely acknowledged his guilt,” according to the court.
President Vladimir Putin declared on Saturday that the four gunmen had been apprehended while attempting to escape to Ukraine, and he promised to punish those responsible for the “barbaric terrorist attack.” Kiev has categorically denied any involvement in the assault.
Putin has not mentioned the claims of culpability made by the Islamic State (IS) group in public.
In the northern Moscow neighborhood of Krasnogorsk, gunmen broke into the Crocus City Hall on Friday night and set it on fire, killing at least 137 people—three of them children.
This is the bloodiest attack that IS has claimed to have happened in Europe.
A video showing the four suspects being hauled into the Investigative Committee of Russia’s Moscow headquarters was uploaded online.
Regarding the other seven suspects detained in relation to the attack, nothing was said.
According to officials, all of the gunmen were foreign nationals.
“Firebombs, knives, and machine guns” –
As part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam,” the Islamic State group claimed on Telegram on Saturday that the attack was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives, and firebombs.”
The SITE intelligence agency reports that a minute and a half-long video that was allegedly recorded by the shooters has been uploaded on social media platforms frequently utilized by IS.
The video, which looks to have been taken from the concert venue’s lobby, shows multiple people firing assault guns while a fire is starting in the backdrop and their faces are hazy and their voices are distorted.
According to Russian investigators, the gunmen trapped many people inside the theater by setting fire to it after shooting at the audience members as they moved around the theater.
Health officials said that the death toll had increased to 182, and that there were 101 patients remaining in hospitals, 40 of whom were in “critical” or “extremely critical” conditions.
Since the 2004 siege of the Beslan school, this attack has become the deadliest in Russia.
29 of the fatalities have been identified by the emergency situations ministry thus far, but the fire has made the identification procedure more difficult.
A video of heavy machinery arriving at the scene to demolish damaged buildings and remove rubble was shared by the ministry on Sunday.
“Morally demolished”
There was shock and sadness on Sunday’s streets in the capital.
It’s a tragic situation. The 35-year-old Ruslana Baranovskaya told AFP, “I was morally crushed.” Standing on a street off Red Square, 73-year-old Valentina Karenina observed, “People don’t smile… everybody feels the loss.” Around the nation, theaters, museums, and movie theaters closed, and memorial posters replaced billboards.
In honor of the victims, mourners kept pouring into the music theater in northwest Moscow to lay flowers. Following the incident, more than 5,000 individuals gave blood, many of them waiting in large lines outside blood centers, according to officials.
People expressed their sympathies by leaving flowers outside Russian embassies abroad. Putin promised “oblivion and retribution” on Saturday against the “terrorists, murderers, and non-humans” responsible for the “barbaric terrorist attack.”
Critics of the Kremlin are concerned because a number of his allies have demanded that the nation end its moratorium on the death sentence.
Putin Makes Reference to Ukraine.
Putin alluded to a connection to Ukraine in his statement on Saturday.
In his broadcast speech, Putin stated of the assailants, “They tried to escape and were travelling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”
In his own evening speech on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied any involvement on Kyiv’s part.
Some in Moscow questioned Putin’s assertions as well.
“I don’t think the account of Ukraine’s involvement is credible. Vomik Aliyev, a 22-year-old who frequently attended concerts and claimed that his parents were Muslims, remarked that these crimes “are more akin to those committed by Islamist extremists.”
Additionally, Kyiv’s involvement was denied by Washington.
According to Adrienne Watson, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, “ISIS (Islamic State group) bears sole responsibility for this attack.”
Following the incident and in light of “the threats weighing on our country,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal declared late on Sunday that the nation was going back to being on high alert for security.
He blamed the Islamic State organization for the attack.
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