The attack on a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday is the worst terrorist attack on Russian territory since the Beslan massacre (2004).
More than a hundred dead
At least 115 people died in the attack, which occurred around 8:00 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) on Friday before a concert at Crocus City Hall in the city of Krasnogorsk, northwest of Moscow.
Authorities admit the death toll could rise “significantly” in the coming hours as rescue workers are still searching for bodies in the rubble of the building where the fire has not yet been extinguished.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Health, 107 injured people are in hospitals, of which 44 are in serious condition and 16 are in very serious condition.
Four men armed with automatic rifles and explosives
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB), four men armed with automatic rifles, explosives and firebombs carried out the brutal attack.
The attackers managed to escape but were arrested today along with seven other people on a road in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine. Some of those arrested were injured after resisting.
According to the Russian security services, the terrorists wanted to cross the border into Ukraine and had “contacts” with representatives of that country who would have guaranteed them escape.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the shooting, Amaq Agency, its propaganda outlet, reported on Telegram.
Experts said the jihadists decided to punish Russia for its role in defending the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, the liquidation of Islamist guerrillas in Chechnya and its decision to cooperate with the Taliban, enemies of the Islamic State.
The last jihadist attack on Russian territory occurred in 2017 against the Saint Petersburg metro, in which 17 people died and another 64 were injured.
Russian politicians have suggested that Ukraine may have been behind the attack, although Kiev has categorically denied this, a refutation backed by the United States.
Russia acknowledges that the US warned it
Western embassies warned on March 8 of possible terrorist attacks in crowds related to the March 15-17 presidential election, but Russian President Vladimir Putin contradicted those warnings.
In fact, the day before, the FSB said it had neutralized an Islamic State cell in Kaluga province that was planning to attack a synagogue in Moscow.
The security services told the TASS agency on Saturday that the US had passed on this information to Russia, but that it was “general in nature and without specific data.”
Putin gives orders but remains silent
Putin, who was confirmed as president-elect on Thursday for a fifth six-year term, made a statement posted on the Kremlin website on Saturday.
The president condemned the “barbaric” terrorist attack and called for revenge on the initiators of the attack, whose responsibility the Islamic State claimed: “All authors, organizers and initiators of this crime will receive a well-deserved and inevitable punishment,” whoever they are and regardless of whether they were sent,” Putin said during a televised address.
Putin did not speculate about the attack’s masterminds, but mentioned that the four detained terrorists tried to escape across the Ukrainian border.
“Terrorists, murderers and beasts who do not have and cannot have a nationality await a catastrophic fate: revenge and oblivion. They have no future,” he commented.
The worst attack since Beslan
This is the biggest attack in Russia since the school massacre in the northwestern city of Beslan that left 334 people dead, half of them children.
The school was hijacked on the first day of school by a Chechen commando who took nearly 1,200 people hostage to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
The impromptu rescue operation ended tragically as the terrorists planted explosives in the building and the security forces used heavy weapons, which was heavily criticized by the mothers of the schoolchildren.
As for Moscow, the last major attack occurred in 2011, when a Caucasian suicide bomber detonated the bomb strapped to his body at Domodedovo International Airport, leaving 37 dead and 172 injured.