In a controversial statement lacking evidence, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserts that Ukraine played a role in the attack, a claim that Kyiv categorically rejects.
In a significant legal proceeding, the trial has commenced for 19 individuals implicated in the tragic 2024 shooting incident at a concert hall in Moscow, which claimed the lives of 149 and injured over 600, marking one of the most lethal assaults in the city since the violent Russian-Chechen conflicts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The accused, under stringent security, appeared in court on Monday, their heads bowed as they occupied the defendants’ enclosure.
Responsibility for the March 22, 2024, massacre at Crocus City Hall has been claimed by an affiliate of ISIL (ISIS), as four assailants unleashed gunfire on concertgoers awaiting a rock performance, subsequently setting the venue ablaze. The attack was specifically attributed to ISIL’s Afghan faction, known as ISKP (ISIS-K).
President Putin, along with other high-ranking Russian officials, alleges, without substantiation, that Ukraine had a hand in orchestrating the assault, a claim met with strong denial from Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee of Russia, the nation’s premier criminal investigation authority, reported in June that the attack was purportedly “conceived and executed on behalf of the current Ukrainian leadership to create political instability in our country.” The agency also suggested that the alleged gunmen attempted to flee to Ukraine following the event.
Identified as Tajik nationals, the four attackers were apprehended within hours of the incident and later presented in a court in Moscow, showing signs of physical abuse.
This year, the committee revealed that six additional suspects had been charged in absentia and placed on Russia’s most-wanted list for reportedly recruiting and training the four assailants. Other individuals involved are accused of providing various forms of assistance to the perpetrators.
This incident echoes the 2002 Dubrovka Theatre siege in Moscow, where around 40 Chechen rebels took approximately 800 hostages, demanding an end to the conflict in Chechnya. Putin’s refusal to negotiate with the insurgents led to a tragic end, with Russian forces employing a gas that inadvertently resulted in the deaths of many hostages during the rescue attempt. Out of the 129 fatalities, most succumbed to the gas exposure.