EPA Ambassadors, including from the US, lay flowers for the victims of the attack
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:25
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Geert Groot Koerkamp
Correspondent Russia
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Geert Groot Koerkamp
Correspondent Russia
On the ninth day since the bloody terrorist action in the Crocus City Hall concert hall, Russia mourns the 144 dead and more than five hundred injured. Throughout the day, thousands of people come and go from the complex on the outskirts of Moscow, leaving flowers, cuddly toys or photos, or looking in silence at the sea of flowers and the burnt-out concert hall a little further away. Dozens of foreign diplomats also visited the location on Saturday to express their condolences.
In Orthodox tradition, a deceased person is specially commemorated on the ninth day after his death. The ceremonies started on Saturday with an open-air Russian Orthodox prayer service. Later in the day a symphony orchestra played.
President Putin has not yet visited the site of the attack. The Crocus City massacre was the worst act of terror in and around the Russian capital since he became president in 2000. The concert hall is located on the Moscow ring road, on the territory of the surrounding province of the same name. In 2002, 130 people were killed in a hostage situation in a musical theater in Moscow, one of the victims was a Dutch woman. Most people died after a hitherto unknown intoxicating gas was used during a storm by elite troops.
Mourners are shocked by the attack and blame Ukraine:
Russians in mourning at concert hall: ‘I am very afraid’
Russia continues to claim, without a shred of evidence, that Ukraine is behind the attack on Crocus City Hall. There are numerous indications that the terrorist action is the work of ISIS-K, a Central Asian branch of IS. He has repeatedly claimed responsibility, with evidence of video footage taken by the suspected four shooters during the execution of their act. The four were arrested a week ago in Bryansk province, more than 350 kilometers southwest of Moscow.
The Russian security service immediately said that the men were on their way to Ukraine and had ‘contacts’ there. Shortly afterwards, Putin said that the Ukrainian side would ‘open’ the border to let the terrorists through, without explaining how they would be able to pass through the Russian military cordons. Putin later said that although the perpetrators were radical Muslims, he implied that they had been directed from Ukraine.
‘Undisguised blackmail’
President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus offered a different version. He said the men were initially heading towards the border with his country. The place where the men were arrested, according to Russian authorities, is on the road to Ukraine, approximately equidistant from both Belarus and Ukraine.
Kyiv denies any involvement. The United States says it has confirmation that IS is behind the attack. Washington had already warned at the beginning of March about possible attacks in Russia, including at concerts. Three days before the terrorist action in Crocus City, President Putin called those American warnings “undisguised blackmail” with the intention of “scare and destabilize our society.”
AFPTuring the commemoration, white balloons were released for the victims
The four main suspects are of Tajik nationality and have now been brought to trial and will remain in pre-trial detention until at least May 22 on suspicion of terrorism. They could be sentenced to life in prison for this. Two of them are said to have pleaded guilty.
In the courtroom they showed clear signs of torture, which was also evident from video footage that previously circulated on social media. The images show how part of the ear of one of the detainees is cut off and another is given electric shocks. One of the men appeared unconscious in court and had to be brought in in a wheelchair. Torture practices are regularly reported from Russian prisons, but this is the first time that suspects have been brought to trial in this state.
Hunting for Tajiks
In addition to these four, at least five more people have been arrested, including the former owner of the car the four used and a man who had rented them an apartment. Arrests have also been made in Tajikistan. Several family members of the suspects have been interrogated and possibly arrested. Another nine people were reportedly arrested in Tajikistan on Thursday with possible links to IS and the main suspects in Moscow.
In the aftermath of the attack, a full-scale manhunt for migrant workers from Tajikistan and other countries in Central Asia has begun in several Russian cities. There are police raids on hostels and homes, and on the streets and in the subway, men with a Central Asian appearance are forced to show their documents at any time.
Saint Petersburg takes the cake. At least 64 migrants have been deported from that city to their own countries. Tajik authorities report a large exodus of Tajiks from Russia and speak of panic among compatriots in that country. Of the almost ten million Tajiks, more than 600,000 work in Russia.
2024-03-30 18:25:46
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