Russia casts doubt on ISIS responsibility for concert attack
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A suspect in the gun attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue being escorted inside the Basmanny District Court in Moscow, on March 24.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MOSCOW – Russia on March 25 challenged assertions by the United States that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group orchestrated a gun attack at a concert hall outside Moscow that killed 137 people and injured 182 others, accusing Washington of covering for Ukraine.
In what has been the deadliest attack within Russia for two decades, four men burst into the Crocus City Hall on the night of March 22, spraying people with bullets during a concert by Soviet-era rock group Piknik.
Four men, at least one a Tajik, were remanded in custody for terrorism. They appeared separately, led into a cage at Moscow’s Basmanny District Court by Federal Security Service officers.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, a claim the US has publicly said it believed, and the militant group has since released what it says is footage from the attack.
US officials said they warned Russia of intelligence about an imminent attack earlier in March.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not publicly mentioned the Islamist militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said had been trying to escape to Ukraine. Mr Putin said some people on “the Ukrainian side” had been prepared to spirit the gunmen across the border.
Ukraine has denied any role in the attack, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Mr Putin of seeking to divert blame for the attack by mentioning Ukraine.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called into question US assertions that ISIS, which once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, was behind the attack.
In an article for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, she said the US was evoking the “bogeyman” of ISIS to cover its “wards” in Kyiv, and reminded readers that Washington had supported the “mujahideen” fighters who fought Soviet forces in the 1980s.
Two US officials said on March 22 that the United States had intelligence confirming ISIS’ claim of responsibility.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that Russia could not comment on the ISIS claim while the investigation was ongoing, and would not comment on the US intelligence, saying it was sensitive information.
Video shows part of suspect’s ear being cut off
Mr Putin said 11 people had been detained, including the four suspected gunmen, who fled the concert hall and made their way to the Bryansk region, about 340km south-west of Moscow, to slip across the border to Ukraine.
Unverified videos of the suspects’ interrogations were circulated on social media. One suspect was shown having part of his ear cut off and stuffed into his mouth.
One man, a Tajik named Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, leaned against the glass cage as the terrorism charge was read out. Another, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, his ear in bandages, was sitting down.
Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, a suspect in the shooting attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue, during a hearing on pre-trial restrictions at Basmanny District Court, in Moscow on March 24.
Muhammadsobir Fayzov appeared in gaping hospital clothes, sitting in a medical chair, his face covered in cuts. Shamsiddin Fariduni, his face bruised, was standing.
The Kremlin’s Mr Peskov left a journalist’s question about the treatment of the detainees unanswered.
Mr Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a major European war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine with Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.
The US and its European allies have supported Ukraine, extending billions of dollars of money, weapons and intelligence in a bid to defeat Russian forces.
The French government said late on March 24 that it was raising its terror alert warning to its highest level following the shootings in Moscow. REUTERS
Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, a suspect in the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, sits behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants at the Basmanny district court in Moscow, on March 24.
