Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle in memory of the victims of the Crocus City Hall attack, on the day of national mourning in a church at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia March 24, 2024.
President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the 137 people killed at the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow on Friday. Several gunmen opened fire at the popular music venue late Friday, injuring another 180 and leaving more than a third of the building on fire. Crews are still sifting through the debris for bodies.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which came just weeks after Washington warned of possible terrorism at large venues in the Moscow area, which Putin notably ridiculed as fearmongering.
What motivated the militants? In a word: Syria. Russia has been helping the Assad regime ramp up its attacks on Islamic State strongholds in recent months, but the battles have been going on for years, with anger festering over Putin’s support for President Bashar al-Assad.
Still, Putin looks east. Despite the Islamic State’s admission, Putin tried to blame Ukraine. He also blamed “international terrorism” but said the perpetrators — 11 have been arrested, including four of the gunmen — were trying to flee to Ukraine after the attack.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied any role in Friday’s tragedy. Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities intensified over the weekend, with drones hitting Kyiv and Lviv, along the Polish border. While no one was injured, Poland reported that Russian cruise missiles had entered its airspace.
"Pointing the finger at Ukraine and sidelining the ISIS-K angle — at least in official statements — serves the Kremlin’s purpose of rationalizing a potential escalation in its military operations against the adversary," says Eurasia Group analyst Tinatin Japaridze, possibly including a new round of conscription, though Putin did not mention mobilization specifically on Saturday.
Russian propaganda channels post photos and videos of Moscow terror attack suspects being tortured
Russian Telegram channels close to the Russian security services have posted a photo that allegedly shows Shamsiddin Fariduni being interrogated and tortured by electrocution. Fariduni has been detained on suspicion of committing the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow Oblast.
Source: Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza with reference to Telegram channels
Details: The man in the photo is lying on the floor with his trousers down. A TA-57 field telephone, which the security forces use to apply electric current, is allegedly connected to his body. The clamp of the wire appears to be connected to his genitals (that part of the photo is blurred).
According to the description provided by the Telegram channel Grey Zone, the voltage is 80 volts, and water is being poured over the suspect to intensify the effect.
Earlier, a video of the interrogation of another suspect, Radzhab Alizade, was posted by propaganda channels. In this video, a man in camouflage holds Alizade on the ground, then cuts a piece off his right ear with a knife and attempts to force the alleged terrorist to eat it.
Ukrainska Pravda will not be publishing these photos and videos for ethical reasons.
Previously: ISIS called the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow Oblast their "most brutal attack in recent years" and posted photos of the terrorists wearing the same clothing as the detainees whose photos have been posted by the FSB.
Background:
- The shooting incident occurred prior to a concert by the band Piknik at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, on the evening of 22 March. Afterwards, a large fire broke out in the auditorium. The latest reports say 137 people have died, including three children, and 180 people were injured.
- Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) said the terrorist attack was a deliberate provocation by Putin’s regime that had been anticipated by the international community. Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, stated that Ukraine had nothing to do with the attack.
- Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed that a "back door" had been prepared for the suspects to cross the border into Ukraine. Ukraine's Defence Intelligence responded by saying that these claims are entirely devoid of truth.
- The United States says it has no doubt that ISIS was involved in the terrorist attack and had warned Russia in advance of the threat of such an attack.
Moscow concert hall accused of locking
emergency exits before terror attack that
killed 137
James Kilner
Sun, 24 March 2024
Smoke rises above Crocus City Hall after the attack on Friday - Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Emergency exits at the Moscow concert hall where gunmen killed 137 people could not be opened, some of the survivors have claimed.
Russian media have reported that more people may have died from smoke inhalation than gunshot wounds during the attack on Friday.
Some 28 bodies are thought to have been found in a lavatory and another 14 in the stairwell of an emergency exit.
Trapped people hiding from the gunmen reportedly called emergency services pleading to be rescued as thick smoke filled the building.
People fleeing from the gunmen found some exits had been locked in what appeared to have been a well-planned attack
A video shot by a survivor on his mobile phone showed people desperately rattling the handles of closed emergency exits as they tried to flee.
“This is a locked door,” the survivor is heard telling his companion.
In what appears to be a well-planned attack, the gunmen set fire to the building.
Baza, a Telegram channel linked to the Russian security services, said that bodies piled up next to emergency exits which may have been blocked shut.
In an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, an unnamed survivor said that he had been forced to dash through the main entrance of the concert hall, where the gunmen had started their attack, because the fire exits would not open.
“We tried the fire escape ladder, but it was closed. People climbed the ladder, descended the ladder, all closed,” he said.
Sensitive issue in Russia
The issue of blocked or locked fire exits is sensitive in Russia. In 2018, more than 60 people died in a shopping mall fire in Siberia because the alarms had been turned off and the escape exits had been locked.
Aras Agalarov, the owner of Crocus City Hall, has denied that any of the fire escape exits were locked and several survivors of the attack have said that they escaped through emergency exits.
The attack, responsibility for which has been claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, is the deadliest on Russian soil in years.
Some families still don’t know whether relatives who went to the event attacked by gunmen on Friday are alive. Moscow’s department of health said on Sunday that it has begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, which will take at least two weeks.
The Moscow region’s ministry of emergency situations posted a video on Sunday showing equipment dismantling the damaged music venue to give rescuers access
AFP
Sat, March 23, 2024
Gunmen opened fire at Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow and set it ablaze (Handout)
Russian television on Saturday aired footage of the detention and questioning of four men suspected of carrying out the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall.
Russia's Channel One television showed footage of four suspects and their damaged white Renault car.
It said they were captured by special forces in the village of Khatsun in the western Bryansk region, which is close to borders with Ukraine and Belarus.
In footage shot at night and in daylight, the detained men speak Russian with an accent.
The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for Friday night's attack, when a group of gunmen opened fire at Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow and set it ablaze.
They killed at least 133 people.
The interior ministry said Saturday that all four suspected gunmen were foreign nationals.
A Russian MP has said some of those detained are from Tajikistan, an impoverished post-Soviet state that borders Afghanistan and whose nationals have participated in previous IS attacks.
"What were you doing at Crocus?" a young bearded man seated on the ground is asked.
"I shot people.. for money," he answers in broken Russian. He goes on to say he was offered "half a million rubles ($5,425)" and had received half of it on a bank card.
- Contacted on Telegram -
Those who had hired them had supplied them with the weapons, he added, corresponding with him on the Telegram secure messaging platform without giving their names.
The footage also shows one suspect being led along on a snowy track in a forest. The dark-haired man in a light brown T-shirt has blood pouring down his cheek from his ear.
He too is shown being questioned with a bandage wrapped around his head, his lips and nose bloodied and swollen.
Asked what the suspected attackers did with their weapons, he says they were left "somewhere on the road".
Earlier, a graphic video was posted online, apparently showing the detention of the same suspect.
It showed a man in camouflage cutting off part of the ear of a dark-haired man, trying to make him eat it and then hitting him on the face.
Russian television showed other suspects with cuts to their faces.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that Chechen soldiers had helped the FSB security service capture the suspects.
Belarus said that it had assisted Russia in detaining the men "to prevent them from leaving through our common border".
None of those questioned mentioned either Islamic State or Ukraine in the footage broadcast.
Russian officials have not mentioned the Islamic State group in their public statements, but President Vladimir Putin said Saturday the suspects had been planning to cross the border into Ukraine.
Kyiv firmly denies any involvement and has dismissed any suggestion the gunmen could have been heading into Ukraine.
Russia has said it has detained 11 people including four suspected gunmen.
bur/jj
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