What happened in the Moscow concert attack and how it will be solved
Russia marks a national day of mourning for victims of the concert hall attack: a suicide rate of children in Moscow is the result of a massive explosion
MOSCOW — Family and friends of those still missing after an attack that killed more than 130 people at a suburban Moscow concert hall waited for news of their loved ones as Russia observed a day of national mourning on Sunday.
Events at cultural institutions were canceled, flags were lowered to half-staff and television entertainment and advertising were suspended, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. A steady stream of people built a makeshift memorial near the concert hall that went up in flames.
Any one of us could be in that situation, and so people came to a concert, some people came to relax with their families. “I want to pay tribute to all the families that were affected here and I want to express my sympathies,” said Andrey Kondakov, one of the mourners who laid flowers at the memorial.
The kindergarten employee said it was a disaster that had affected all of the country. “It just doesn’t even make sense that small children were affected by this event.” Three children were among the dead.
Some people are not sure if any relatives who went to the event on Friday are still alive, as rescue workers search for bodies in the damaged building. Moscow’s Department of Health said Sunday it has begun identifying the bodies of those killed via DNA testing, which will need at least two weeks.
Source: Russia marks a national day of mourning for victims of the concert hall attack
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged terrorist attack on Ukraine: A warning to the Russian public, and what the media might have to say about it
After hearing of the gunfire, Pogadaev rushed to the scene but couldn’t find her in the many ambulances or the hundreds of people who left the venue.
I showed photographs to everyone I asked. No one saw anything, no one could say anything,” Pogadaev told the AP in a video message.
As the death toll mounted on Saturday, Pogodaev scoured hospitals in the Russian capital and the Moscow region, looking for information on newly admitted patients.
Russian authorities arrested four suspected attackers on Saturday, Putin said in an nighttime address to the nation, among 11 people detained suspicion of involvement in the attack. He said that they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine.
There was a high level of police presence around Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Sunday. Police tried to drive journalists away from the court.
The interrogator severed the man’s ear with a knife after he was brought into court with a bandage over it. Another was brought in a wheelchair, only partially conscious and with apparent trauma to his eye. A third man had a torn plastic bag around his neck. A video was leaked by security forces to social media, which appears to show an agent performing a sex act.
Putin didn’t mention IS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s fight in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.
The responsibility of this attack is assigned to the terrorist organization,ISIS. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
The US gave Russia information about a terrorist attack in Moscow and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia.
The Russian leader was humiliated by the raid just days after securing another six years in office and just a few days after a vote that saw his government crack down on dissent.
Russian critics of the government argue the security failure signaled the Kremlin’s obsession with cracking down on what it perceives as domestic challengers — such as Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine, followers of the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny and Russia’s LGBT community — rather than legitimate threats.
U.S. condemnation of the Sinai attack on a Russian concertgoer in August 2015 and its implications for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the U.S. condemned the attack and said that the Islamic State group is a “common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.”
Several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions have been claimed by the group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
The group issued a new statement Saturday on Aamaq, saying the attack was carried out by four men who used automatic rifles, a pistol, knives and firebombs. It said the assailants fired at the crowd and used knives to kill some concertgoers, casting the raid as part of the Islamic State group’s ongoing war with countries that it says are fighting against Islam.
In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacationers returning from Egypt.
Meanwhile, attention will now shift back to the Kremlin’s messaging on the attack itself. Putin has vowed to retaliate against any and all involved. The concern — both at home and abroad — is that opens a new expansion of the war in Ukraine, whatever the truth.
With the suspects now charged, a trial could get underway as soon as late May. If convicted, the men face possible life in prison. Russia currently has a moratorium on the death penalty — although the carnage at Crocus City has raised calls by leading political figures to change course.
Ukrainian officials have vehemently denied involvement — calling the accusations a Kremlin attempt to marshal Russian public support for an increasingly unpopular war.
Other Russian officials — such as the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova — have suggested that any U.S. statements were intended to steer attention away from Ukraine.
The Moscow concert attack and what’s next in the case: What to know about the attack on the Crocus City Hall, Russia?
“If I do not help and react, I’ll lose my life,” said the man in an interview with Russian media. “But honestly, it was terrifying.”
Video from the night of the attack shows Khalilov leading a large group of people — said to number around 100 — through the winding hallways of the concert venue and out to safety.
Yet three days before the assault on Crocus City Hall, Putin dismissed the American claims as fearmongering. Russian leader said the warnings were provocative and were intended to intimidate and destabilizing their society in a speech to the Federal Security Service.
The Kremlin did not indicate on Monday that Putin was going to visit the site of the attack. Instead, the government released a video over the weekend that showed Putin lighting a candle to honor victims at a private Orthodox church at his residence outside Moscow.
Russian Orthodox priests, including Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a key Kremlin ally, held vigils and prayers for the victims. At the site of the massacre, an impromptu memorial had mushroomed into a mountain of flowers, candles, and other tributes by Sunday evening. An audiovisual presentation beamed images of flying cranes on the walls of the concert hall accompanied by stirring music — a tribute to the victims that was broadcast on state media and shared online.
Sunday marked a day of national mourning — with tributes to the victims held in cities across the country. A national billboard campaign ran ads that showed a candle with the words “We Mourn.” Long lines were seen at blood donation centers in Moscow and other major cities.
Four Tajikistan men reportedly from a former Soviet republic charged with acts of terror pleaded guilty to the attack on a concert hall in Moscow
Four suspects — all reportedly from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic — were charged with committing acts of terror in a closed Moscow court hearing late Sunday night. A court statement said the men — identified as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32; Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30; Shamsidin Fariduni, 25; and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19 — all pled guilty to participating in the attack and shooting innocent civilians.
The death count surged throughout the weekend, as recovery teams discovered additional bodies and other victims died of injuries.
It’s still not over the terrorist attack on a concert hall in Moscow that killed and injured scores of people.
