Russia is flying flags at half-mast on Sunday to mourn after many people were shot with automatic guns at a rock concert near Moscow in the deadliest attack in 20 years. Russia for two decades.
President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning after vowing to find and punish all those responsible for the attack, in which 137 people, including three children, were killed and more than 150 were injured.
The death toll has gone up from 133, according to the Investigation Committee on Sunday, and 62 bodies have been identified.
Putin gave his first public comments on the attack on Saturday, expressing deep condolences. He said, “The whole country and our entire people are grieving with you.”
Islamic State claimed they were responsible for the attack on Friday, but Putin did not mention the militant group in connection with the attackers publicly. He said the attackers were trying to escape to Ukraine. He stated that some people on “the Ukrainian side” were preparing to help them cross the border.
Ukraine has denied any involvement in the attack, which Putin also attributed to “international terrorism.”
People left flowers at Crocus City Hall, the 6,200-seat concert hall outside Moscow, where four armed men entered on Friday just before the Soviet-era rock group Picnic was about to perform their hit “Afraid of Nothing.”
The men shot their automatic weapons in short bursts at frightened civilians who fell screaming as bullets flew.
It was the deadliest attack on Russian soil since the 2004 Beslan school siege, when Islamist militants took over 1,000 people, including hundreds of children, as hostages.
Long queues formed in Moscow for blood donations. Blood banks announced on Sunday they now had enough blood supplies for four to six months.
In Moscow, billboards displayed a picture of a single candle, the date of the attack, and the words “We mourn.” In other cities, people left flowers.
Countries all around the world have expressed horror at the attack and sent their condolences to the Russian people.
GUNMEN
Putin said 11 people, including the four gunmen, had been arrested. The gunmen escaped the concert hall and made their way to the Bryansk region, about 340 km southwest of Moscow.
“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to initial information, a passage had been arranged for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Putin stated.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) mentioned that the gunmen had connections in Ukraine and were caught near the border.
The suspects have been taken to Moscow and might appear in court later today, according to local news agencies.
Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a major European war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces, pro-Russian Ukrainians, and Russian proxies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated it was typical of Putin and “other thugs” to try to shift the blame.
The Islamist group Islamic State, which once wanted control over parts of Iraq and Syria, said it was responsible for the attack through its Amaq agency on Telegram. On Saturday night, Islamic State released footage of the attack on its Telegram channels.
In a video released by Russian media and Telegram channels connected to the Kremlin, one of the suspects claimed he was paid to carry out the attack.
The suspect, with his hands tied and his hair held back by an interrogator, said in broken and heavily accented Russian, "I shot people" while a black boot was beneath his chin.
When asked why, he answered, "For money." The man stated he was promised half a million roubles (a little over $5,000). One of the suspects responded to questions with the help of a Tajik translator. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon talked to Putin about the attack.
ISLAMIC STATE
The U.S. government informed Russia early this month about a planned attack in Moscow and issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7. It stated that Islamic State was solely responsible for the attack.
"There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever," stated U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson.
Russian officials were unhappy with the public comments made by the U.S. about the attack and insisted that Russian investigators need to be allowed to conduct their own investigations.
The United States and other Western countries, with strained relations with Moscow due to the Ukraine war, also sent messages of sympathy to the Russian people.
If the attack was carried out by Islamic State, it was unclear why the group chose this time to attack Russia. Putin intervened in 2015 and changed the course of the Syrian civil war by supporting President Bashar al-Assad against the opposition and Islamic State.
