Putin Vows Retribution for Deadly Concert Hall Attack

Agencies 

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack” on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130, saying four gunmen trying to flee to Ukraine had been arrested.

Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of trying to shift the blame onto them. 

Putin, in his first public remarks on the attack, made no reference to a statement by the Islamic State group (IS) claiming responsibility. 

At least 133 people were killed when camouflaged gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s northern suburb of Krasnogorsk, and then set fire to the building on Friday evening.

The Islamic State group wrote on Telegram Saturday that the attack was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives, and firebombs” as part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam.”

Related: https://thepenpk.com/isis-claims-responsibility-for-moscow-attack-us-media/

It is the deadliest attack in Russia for almost two decades and the deadliest attack in Europe to have been claimed by IS.

Russian officials expect the death toll to rise further, with more than 100 wounded in hospitals.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the burnt-out building on Saturday.

The emergency situations ministry has so far named 29 of the victims, the blaze having complicated the process of identification.

‘Barbaric’

“Terrorists, murderers, non-humans… have only one unenviable fate: retribution and oblivion,” Putin said in his televised address Saturday. 

Calling the attack a “barbaric, terrorist act,”  he said, “All four direct perpetrators—all those who shot and killed people—have been found and detained.”. 

Russian television showed security services interrogating four bloodied men, who spoke Russian with an accent, on a road in the western Bryansk region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus. 

“They tried to escape and were traveling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” said Putin. 

Putin also compared the attackers to “Nazis” and said the attack was an “atrocity, a strike against Russia and our people.”. 

Zelensky, in his evening address on Saturday, dismissed the suggestion that Kyiv had been involved. 

“What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious,” he said. “Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else.” 

“They always have the same methods. It has happened before. There have been bombed houses, shootings, and explosions. And they always blame others,” he added.

Russia has arrested 11 people in connection with the attack, the FSB security service said. Earlier, the agency had said the attackers had “contacts” in Ukraine without elaborating.