Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the Moscow terror attack was carried out by radical Islamists. However, he did not name ISIS, the terror group that has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Russian leader suggested that Ukraine may have played a role in the attack. Ukrainian officials have already clarified that they were not behind the attack.
During a meeting with government officials in Kremlin, Putin said investigators are yet to determine who “ordered” the attack. The Russian President’s remarks were posted on Telegram.
Putin added that the killings were carried out by extremists “whose ideology the Islamic world has been fighting for centuries”.
Putin, who declared over the weekend that the four attackers were arrested while trying to escape to Ukraine, said investigators have not determined who ordered the attack, but that it was necessary to find out “why the terrorists after committing their crime tried to flee to Ukraine and who was waiting for them there”.
Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed it carried out the attack, and United States intelligence said it had information confirming the group was responsible.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France has intelligence pointing to “an IS entity” as responsible for the attack.
Macron said the IS entity believed to be behind the killings – known as Khorasan, which is a branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan – had also sought to attack France.
“We are seeing that the US, through various channels, is trying to convince its satellites and other countries of the world that, according to their intelligence, there is allegedly no Kyiv trace in the Moscow terror attack – that the bloody terrorist act was committed by followers of Islam, members of the Islamic State group,” Putin said during a meeting with top police officials.
Putin went on to declare that Ukraine has sought to deflect attention from its battlefield setbacks by waging cross-border attacks on various Russian regions, adding that “bloody intimidation acts like the Moscow terror attack look like a logical part of this chain”.
The attack on Friday night at the Crocus City Hall music venue on the western outskirts of Moscow left 139 people dead and more than 180 injured, proving to be the deadliest in Russia in years. About 100 people remained hospitalised, officials said.
With inputs from AP
