Putin Vows to Hunt Down Terror Mastermind in Moscow

MOSCOW – Government Russia has arrested the four gunmen suspected of carrying out the massacre at a concert hall near Moscow. President Vladimir Putin vowed to track down and punish those behind the attack.

The Islamic State group (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack that occurred on Friday. But there are indications that Russia is seeking to establish ties with Ukraine, despite firm denials from Ukrainian officials that Kyiv had anything to do with the attack.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said 133 bodies had been recovered from the rubble in 24 hours, and doctors were “fighting for the lives of 107 people.” State TV editor Margarita Simonyan, without citing her sources, previously put the death toll at 143.

In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had been detained, including four gunmen. “They are trying to hide and move towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window has been prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said.

Russia’s FSB security service said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were arrested near the border. It was said that they would be transferred to Moscow.

Neither Putin nor the FSB have publicly shown evidence of any ties to Ukraine, with which Russia has been at war for the past 25 months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said attempts to shift blame were common practice for Putin and “other criminals”.

Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters: “Ukraine was of course not involved in this terror attack. Ukraine defended its sovereignty against Russian invaders, liberated its own territory and fought against targets of the invader’s army and military, not civilians.”

ISIS had a strong motivation to attack Russia, which intervened against the country in Syria’s civil war in 2015, and security analysts said ISIS’ claims appeared plausible because they fit a pattern of past attacks.

Meanwhile, Putin called the enemy “international terrorism” and said he was ready to cooperate with any country that wants to defeat it.

“All perpetrators, organizers and those who ordered this crime will be punished fairly and definitively. Whoever they are, whoever guides them,” Putin said. “We will identify and punish anyone who stood behind the terrorists, who planned these atrocities, attacks against Russia, against our people.”