Russia observes a day of national mourning on Sunday after the massacre in a concert hall near Moscow which left more than 130 dead, the deadliest attack on European soil claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
The authorities, however, did not mention the responsibility of this group, citing instead a Ukrainian lead.
“The whole country is in mourning,” Russian public television channel Russia 24 said on Sunday morning.
She broadcast images of a huge digital panel installed on the charred building of the concert hall: a candle on a black background and the inscription “Crocus City Hall. 03/22/2024. We are in mourning…” Similar posters appeared all over the city.
Moscow’s museums and theaters have announced their closure for the weekend. Restaurants in the capital have promised to donate part of their profits from Sunday to the victims’ relatives.
“People no longer smile here, there is no more joy,” Valentina Karenina, 73, originally from Siberia and passing through Moscow, told AFP.
“My daughter called me to tell me not to go out” for fear of another attack, confides the retiree. She nevertheless went to light a candle in a church adjoining Red Square, even though the famous space was closed to the public.
Doubts
Russia did not provide any new information on Sunday regarding the progress of the investigation.
She still did not mention the claim of the jihadist group Islamic State, however evoking a link between Ukraine and the alleged killers who burst into Crocus City Hall on Friday evening, opening fire with automatic weapons on the crowd and setting fire to the building.
At least 133 people died. An assessment that is still provisional, as searches in the rubble could take days after the collapse of the building’s roof.
The four suspected attackers were arrested on Saturday in the Bryansk region, which borders Belarus and Ukraine. They could be presented to a judge in the coming hours.
Denouncing a “barbaric terrorist” act, Vladimir Putin, in a televised address on Saturday, almost 24 hours after the events, affirmed that the suspects had been arrested “while they were heading towards Ukraine”.
This attack is the deadliest in Russia in twenty years, and the bloodiest claimed by ISIS in Europe.
ISIS, which Russia is fighting in Syria and which is also active in the Russian Caucasus, has already carried out smaller attacks in the country since the end of the 2010s.
In this context, British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt cast doubt on Mr. Putin’s version on Sunday, saying he had “very little confidence” in what the Russian government said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, accused the Russian president of wanting to “shift the blame” onto his country. And Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday he hoped that this attack would not become “a pretext” for an “escalation of violence”, in a clear allusion to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
American warnings
A few days before the attack, the Russian president had dismissed as a “provocation” American warnings about an attack being prepared in Russia.
According to the Site group, which specializes in anti-terrorism research, a video apparently shot by the attackers was broadcast on social media accounts usually used by ISIS.
We see several individuals with blurred faces, armed with assault rifles and knives, in what appears to be Crocus City Hall. They fire several bursts, numerous inert bodies litter the ground and we can see the start of a fire in the background.
In the streets of Moscow, some therefore have little faith in the involvement of Ukraine, which the Russian army attacked in February 2022.
“I think that behind this terrorist act there are the extremist Islamists of ISIS. Ukraine also commits terrorist acts but this is more related to what the Islamists are doing. I don’t believe the version of Ukraine’s participation,” insisted Vomik Aliev, a 22-year-old medical student.
Rousslana Baranovskaïa, a 35-year-old lawyer, notes that “the United States and the United Kingdom had warned their nationals” of the risk of attack, so “why did our special services know nothing? “.
“The enemies of Russia”
For Valery Tchernov, 52, the participation of Ukraine and the West in the attack is entirely credible.
“Who is behind [les assaillants] ? The enemies of Russia and Putin to destabilize power, concretely it is possible [que] Ukraine and the West” used ISIS, he said.
Another outstanding question is the nationality of the shooters.
According to Russian media and MP Alexandre Khinstein, some of the suspects are from Tajikistan, a country facing IS and neighboring Afghanistan.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon told Putin on Sunday: “terrorists have no nationality.” The Kremlin announced that anti-terrorism cooperation between the two countries would “intensify”.