Putin says ‘radical Islamists’ were responsible for concert hall massacre, but still accuses Ukraine

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday for the first time accused “radical Islamists” of carrying out last week’s attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, but continued to strongly suggest that Ukraine was still involved despite strong denials from Kyiv and Washington.

Camouflaged gunmen stormed into the Crocus City Hall theater Friday and opened fire on concert-goers, killing at least 137 people and injuring scores more in one of the worst terror attacks of Mr. Putin’s 25-year reign.

The Kremlin in the first hours after the terror attack suggested Ukraine was responsible, in retaliation for Russia’s more than two-year invasion of the country. But Russian officials presented no evidence of a link to Ukraine.

“We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries,” Mr. Putin said Monday in a televised meeting with government officials.

But the Russian president, whose reputation as a guarantor of Russian domestic tranquility was battered by the attack, was not ready to dismiss a Ukrainian link, despite the fact that the four men charged with the attack have been identified by authorities as citizens of Tajikistan, the former Soviet republic that sends thousands of migrants to Russia each year in search of economic opportunities.

“We also see that the United States by various means is trying to convince its satellites, as well as other countries, that according to their intelligence information, there was allegedly no trace of Kyiv’s [involvement] in the Moscow terrorist attack,” Mr. Putin said in his remarks Monday night. “This atrocity may be just one link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014,” referring to Ukraine as a “neo-Nazi regime.”

Officials in Ukraine insisted again Monday they had no involvement in Friday’s terror attack, a position that the U.S. has supported. Blaming others is a common tactic used by Mr. Putin and his supporters, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said over the 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 accused them. Everything is absolutely predictable.”

At least two of the suspects admitted culpability, court officials told the Associated Press, although their conditions raised questions about whether their statements were coerced.

The men were identified as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32; Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30; Shamsidin Fariduni, 25; and Mukhammadsobir Faizov, 19. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said seven other suspects have been detained, but identities and involvement remained unclear.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday refused to speculate on the motives of the attackers, saying he would wait for the investigation to unfold.

Washington said it appears the Afghan branch of the Islamic State terror army known as ISIS-K carried out the brazen assault on the Moscow theater. Officials with ISIS publicly confirmed their responsibility, releasing video clips that showed the assailants spraying victims with gunfire before setting the concert hall ablaze.

U.S. intelligence officials even tried to alert Russian officials that there was evidence such an attack might be coming, a warning that Mr. Putin dismissed last week.

ISIS, which fought Russian forces that intervened in the Syrian civil war, has long targeted the country. The ISIS-K’s Aamaq news agency, said the group had carried out an attack in Krasnogorsk, the suburb of Moscow where the concert hall is located.

The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, the Associated Press reported.

The Moscow attacks did not bring any let-up in Mr. Putin’s campaign in Ukraine: Russian forces on Monday launched missiles against Kyiv for the third time in five days and also targeted other regions Monday as Moscow escalated its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities while the front line in the war remains largely stationary.

Nine people were injured in the morning strike on the Ukrainian capital, the Ukraine Rescue Service said. The southern city of Odesa reported two explosions later in the day, the Associated Press reported.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.