RUSSIA MOURNS TERROR VICTIMS
■ Bloodbath is claimed by Islamic State group ■ But Putin attempts to tie Ukraine to the attack
FAMILY and friends of those missing after an attack that killed more than 130 people at a Moscow concert hall waited for news of their loved ones as Russia observed a day of national mourning yesterday.
Events were cancelled, flags were lowered to half-mast and television entertainment and advertising were suspended.
A steady stream of people brought flowers to a makeshift memorial near the burnt-out concert hall.
“It is a tragedy that has affected our entire country,” pre-school employee Marina Korshunova said.
“It just doesn’t even make sense that small children were affected by this event.” Three children were among the dead.
The attack, which has been claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, is the deadliest on Russian
soil in years.
As rescuers continue to search the damaged building and the death toll rises as more bodies are found, some families still don’t know if relatives who went to the event targeted by gunmen on Friday are alive.
Igor Pogadaev was desperately seeking any details of his wife’s whereabouts after she went to the concert and stopped responding to his messages.
After Pogadaev saw the reports of gunmen opening fire on concertgoers, he rushed to the site, but couldn’t find her.
“I went around, searched, I asked everyone, I showed photographs. No one saw anything,” Pogadaev said. His wife wasn’t among the 154 reported injured, nor on the list of 50 victims authorities have already identified. Refusing to believe that his wife could be one of the 133 people who died in the attack, Pogadaev still hasn’t gone home. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin appears to be trying to tie Ukraine to the attack, something its government firmly denies.
Russian authorities arrested four suspected attackers on Saturday, Putin said in an nighttime address to the nation, among 11 people detained suspicion of involvement in the attack.
He said that they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine.
Putin called the attack “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act.”
Kyiv strongly denied any involvement, and the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility.
Fervour
Putin didn’t mention IS in his speech, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervour for Russia’s war.
US intelligence officials said they had confirmed the IS affiliate’s claim.
The US shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow.
The attack has been a major embarrassment for the Russian leader.