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Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning on Sunday for the victims of a terrorist attack on a concert hall outside Moscow where more than 130 people died — an attack that U.S. officials tried to warn the Russian president about.
Flags were lowered to half-staff across Russia as crowds left flowers and lit candles at a makeshift memorial outside the Crocus City Hall concert theater where armed assailants on Friday sprayed the crowd with gunfire before setting the venue ablaze.
The terror attack threatens Mr. Putin’s carefully cultivated image of a strongman able to guarantee security inside the vast country. On March 19, Mr. Putin told officials with the Federal Security Service, the successor agency of the Soviet-era KGB, that their priority was supporting Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, which he referred to as their Special Military Operation.
“I would also like to recall the recent provocative statements by a number of official Western structures regarding potential terrorist attacks in Russia,” Mr. Putin said. “All these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”
The U.S. government said it appears the Afghan branch of the Islamic State terror group carried out the brazen assault. Officials with ISIS confirmed they were responsible and released video clips showing the gunmen inside the concert hall and opening fire on patrons.
A woman in Moscow who identified herself only as Ekaterina told The Associated Press that the government’s vaunted video surveillance system did little to warn them about an impending terror strike.
“There are cameras everywhere that can trace opposition people going to a rally, and they are also stopped in the metro. But, basic security did not work in a public event,” she said. “Does it mean that cameras targeted on people who carry a book — but you can carry a bomb or a Kalashnikov (assault rifle) and that will be OK?”
Mr. Putin said the four gunmen suspected of taking part in Friday’s attack had been apprehended along with at least seven others believed to have involvement in the attack.
“The Federal Security Service and other law enforcement agencies are working diligently to identify and expose the accomplices behind these terrorists: those who provided them with transport, planned escape routes from the crime scene, and prepared caches with weapons and ammunition,” he said Saturday in an address to the nation.
Mr. Putin’s address made no mention of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, known as ISIS-K, in his weekend address. Instead, he strongly hinted that Ukraine could be involved in the brazen attack.
“It is already clear that we are confronted not simply with a carefully and cynically planned terrorist attack, but a premeditated and organized mass murder of peaceful, defenseless people,” Mr. Putin said.
The gunmen were captured as they were fleeing toward Ukraine, where “a window” had been prepared for them to cross over the border. The Russian leader accused them of plotting to “cold-bloodedly and deliberately” target innocent civilians, including children.
“Like the Nazis who once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they planned to stage a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation,” Mr. Putin said.
Officials in Kyiv said they had no involvement in Friday’s terror attack, which U.S. officials said they have confirmed. Blaming others is a common tactic used by Mr. Putin and his henchmen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this weekend.
“They don’t care what’s happening inside their own country. This absolutely miserable Putin, instead of attending to his own citizens of Russia and addressing them, remained silent for a day — thinking about how to link this with Ukraine,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “They have come to Ukraine, burned our cities, and tried to blame Ukraine. They torture and rape people and accuse them. Everything is absolutely predictable.”
The hundreds of thousands of Russian troops now in occupied Ukraine would be more than enough to take care of any terror group operating inside Russia, Mr. Zelenskyy said.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said there was “no doubt” the gunmen in Moscow were from ISIS-K.
“It has reconstituted itself as we warned would happen when we had this disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. One of the reasons why we didn’t want to withdraw precipitously is because you give them operating space to reorganize themselves and plan externally, Mr. Rubio said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
He said FBI officials told him about an organization inside ISIS that focuses on moving great numbers of people around the globe, including across the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
“I think common sense tells you that if they run a trafficking network of people, they would most certainly use it to move operatives into the United States,” Mr. Rubio said.
ISIS was basically out of business at the end of 2020 under the Trump administration. They were down to less than a thousand fighters when the Biden administration came in. And now, they’ve reconstituted themselves, officials said.
“Once we leave Afghanistan and we’re no longer there to conduct regular strikes, they can now operate openly,” Mr. Rubio said. “No matter how much the Taliban want to take them on, they can’t. They don’t have the capability to do it.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said he was deeply worried that ISIS-K will eventually get around to targeting Americans sooner rather than later.
“What happened in Moscow obviously is very, very sad for the people there but we have a duty to protect the American people wherever they are here in America or around the world,” Mr. Cotton said.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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