Moscow attack: Kremlin refuses to comment on IS claim

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Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in Moscow, Russia , Saturday March 23, 2024.

Agence France-Presse

The Kremlin on Monday refused to comment on the Islamic State (IS) armed group's claim of responsibility for the attack near Moscow, which left 137 dead, while the investigation is ongoing, while research into the rubble continues.

This weekend, Vladimir Putin and his powerful security services, the FSB, did not mention jihadist involvement either, evoking a Ukrainian lead, vigorously denied by Kiev and the West. p>

The Russian president, who only spoke in a brief speech on Saturday, is due to hold a meeting during the day with security and political officials.

However, he has not planned to go to Crocus City Hall, the scene of the worst attack known by Russia in twenty years and the deadliest claimed by the armed group IS on European soil.

Three days after the tragedy, many questions remain unanswered, particularly regarding the identity and motivations of the four suspects.

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Dmitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, did not provide any responses Monday.

The investigation is ongoing and the investigation is ongoing. presidential administration would be wrong to comment on the progress of the investigation.

A quote from Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesperson

The Islamic State armed group, which Russia is fighting in Syria and which is active in the Russian Caucasus, claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian authorities said the suspected killers were trying to reach Ukrainian territory after the attack. attack.

Kiev, which has been fighting an assault by Russian troops since February 2022, has denied any connection with the incident. The United States also rejected the Russian president's version.

On Monday, Russian state television did not mention the armed group ISIS or Ukraine, but specified that the courses in Russia patriotic education in the country's schools today focused on terrorism.

On site, investigators continued to search the rubble of the room concert, ravaged by a gigantic fire started by the attackers.

The number of injured stands at 182, of whom 97 were still hospitalized on Monday, according to the authorities.

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Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, suspect in the shooting at the Crocus City Hall concert hall, sits behind the glass wall of 'An enclosure for defendants at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow, Russia, March 24, 2024.

Dmitry Peskov also did not want to comment on the suspects' allegations of torture, which emerged after the publication of videos on social networks and photos showing them with bloody faces.

In footage of their arrests, broadcast on Russian public television, three of the four alleged attackers had blood on their faces.

Another video, posted online and whose authenticity has not been confirmed, appears to show one of the suspects having his ear cut off by someone off-camera. .

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Suspect Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda sits behind the glass wall of an enclosure for defendants at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow on 24 March 2024.

During the suspects' hearing in a Moscow court on Sunday evening, one of them had a white bandage on his ear while another arrived in a wheelchair with his eyes closed.

One ​​of the Russian opposition figures in exile, Leonid Volkov, denounced on Monday an attempt by the Russian security services to divert attention from [ their] helplessness and [their] failure in showing these videos, while repression has increased in recent months.

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Muhammadsobir Fayzov, one of the shooting suspects, sits in a wheelchair with his eyes closed behind the glass wall of an enclosure for defendants at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow, March 25, 2024.

In total, Russian authorities said they had arrested 11 people, including these four alleged attackers, but their profiles remain very vague.

The four individuals were placed in pre-trial detention overnight from Sunday to Monday until May 22, awaiting their trial, the date of which has not yet been set been fixed.

If they face life imprisonment, executives of Vladimir Putin's regime have increased calls in recent hours for the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorists.

Despite his promises of severe punishment, the snub remains enormous for Vladimir Putin. The attack came just days after his unopposed re-election for six years, when he had promised security to his fellow citizens in the midst of an upsurge in attacks from Ukraine on Russian soil. /p>

The attack on the Crocus City Hall performance hall also recalls other terrorist acts during Vladimir Putin's first years in power, on the embers of the war in Chechnya: the Dubrovka hostage-taking in Moscow in 2002 and the Beslan school tragedy two years later.

The fight against terrorism requires total international cooperation, Dmitri Peskov said on Monday, but this does not exist at all.

French President Emmanuel Macron assured that he had offered Moscow increased cooperation on the subject, specifying that the IS branch involved in Friday's attack had carried out these months several attempts on French soil.