Who are the dead? This question torments many relatives after the terrorist attack near Moscow – because most of the victims have not yet been identified. Meanwhile, the first suspects have been charged.
After the attack on a concert hall near Moscow, the majority of the 137 dead have not yet been identified. The Moscow Health Authority said DNA testing could take up to two weeks. Numerous victims were burned beyond recognition. Many people whose relatives were at the concert in the “Crocus City Hall” and have been missing since then do not yet know whether their relatives are dead.
There are also fears that more victims will be found in the burned-out ruins of the huge event center. The authorities said the rescue work was continuing around the clock. Almost 4,000 people donated blood by evening to facilitate medical treatment for the injured.
Gunmen entered the Crocus City Hall on Friday evening before the start of a concert and shot indiscriminately at visitors. They also set fires. According to authorities, many of those killed died from smoke inhalation.
Flowers at the crime scene, flags at half-mast
A day of mourning was observed in Russia on Sunday because of the attack. Hundreds of mourning people lined up at the fence in front of the sealed-off concert hall to lay flowers at an improvised memorial site. Toys were also put down because children were among the dead and injured. The flag flew at half-mast over the Kremlin. Instead of advertising, illuminated boards in the Russian capital flickered with a photo of a candle and below it the inscription: “We mourn. March 22, 2024.”
The Russian rock group Piknik was scheduled to perform in the large concert hall on Friday. An eyewitness reported to the dpa news agency that she was standing with her husband in one of the upper visitors’ stands when the armed attackers stormed the hall. “We wanted to take a souvenir photo.” At first, she remembers, she thought the explosion noises were loud welcoming applause for the artists. “But it kept banging. I immediately understood that something was wrong.”
Russian President Putin was photographed lighting a candle for terror victims.
“We will avenge each and every one”
According to the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia will target the masterminds of the attack. “We will avenge each and every one of them. And those who are involved, regardless of their country of origin and status, are now our main and legitimate target,” Medvedev said via Telegram.
However, interpretations about who was behind the attack vary. The terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) claimed responsibility for the crime in several letters. Nevertheless, Russia wants to see Ukraine involved, against which Russia has been waging a war of aggression for more than two years.
Two suspects are charged
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of an alleged lead to Ukraine in a speech broadcast on state television on Saturday. Referring to several arrested suspects, he said: “They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where a window had been prepared for them to cross the border.” On Sunday evening, the Russian state news agency TASS reported that two of the suspects had already been charged in Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected any involvement of his country in the attack. “Putin and the other bastards” were just trying to “put the blame on someone else,” Zelensky said in his video address on Saturday. The USA also stated that there was no evidence that Ukraine was responsible.
A suspect is escorted to the headquarters of the Russian Investigative Committee.
Terrorist militia IS releases video
The IS propaganda channel Amak, in turn, published a video supposedly showing the attackers at the site of the attack as alleged evidence of being responsible for the attack. A picture of the alleged assassins was also shown, whose faces had been made unrecognizable. The fighters, armed with assault rifles, pistols and bombs, dealt a “severe blow” to Russia, the statement said. The attack targeted “thousands of Christians in a music hall.” ISIS fights followers of Christianity and regards them as infidels.
Terrorism experts classified the letter of responsibility as credible. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said it was credible that the IS offshoot, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISPK) group, was responsible for the attack. This is currently the greatest danger for Germany, Faeser told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The ISPK terrorist group has its origins in Afghanistan. Khorasan represents a historical region in Central Asia that included parts of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and Iran.
Putin loyalists demand death penalty
Meanwhile, Putin’s domestic allies spoke out in favor of reintroducing the death penalty in Russia. “Now many questions are being asked about the death penalty. A decision will be made that corresponds to the mood and expectations of our society,” said the leader of the ruling United Russia party, Vladimir Vasiliev, in a video. The death penalty has been suspended in Russia since 1996.
Deputy Chairman of the Duma Security Affairs Committee Yuri Afonin said: “It is necessary to reintroduce the death penalty when it comes to terrorism and murder.” Medvedev had already declared via Telegram on Friday: “Terrorists only understand retaliatory terror. Death for death.”