Putin ‘could have been behind deadly concert terror attack’
VLADIMIR Putin has linked Ukraine to the worst terror attack on Russian soil for 20 years.
But experts said Moscow was just as likely as Islamic State to have carried out the attack at a theatre that killed 133 people on Friday.
About 6,000 Russians had flocked to Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, for a concert by rock group Picnic.
Survivors of the attack told how camouflage-clad gunmen carrying automatic rifles entered the venue several minutes before the performance was due to start.
They opened fire on the concourse, before setting off explosives that engulfed the building in flames.
One report said 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase, adding: “Mothers were found embracing their children.”
A woman told how she was buying ice cream with her 11-year-old daughter when someone shouted to get down on the floor.
“We rushed to the children, lay down and started setting up barricades from tables and chairs, and several wounded people came running to us,” she said.
Some of the attackers were said to have fled in a Renault car spotted by police about 200 miles south-west of Moscow.
Police reportedly found a pistol, a magazine for an assault rifle, and passports from Tajikistan.
Russia has arrested 11 people, including four suspected gunmen, with the FSB security service claiming they had contacts in Ukraine. In a TV address, Russian president Putin blamed “international ter
rorism” for what he called a barbaric act.
He said: “We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists who prepared this atrocity, this strike against our people.”
He then accused Ukraine of being involved, adding: “They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”
Kyiv has denied any role. The Islamic State-khorasan Province (ISKP) terror group said it carried out the attack. US and UK intelligence agencies had been gathering evidence it could mount an attack, and recently issued a warning urging people to stay away from large gatherings.
But Keir Giles, of the Chatham House think-tank, said Moscow could have planned the attack.
“It is entirely feasible that this is a false-flag operation engineered by Moscow to justify its next, horrid, stage of the special military action in Ukraine,” he said.
A third possibility was the attack was carried out by extremists in the intelligence services or military, to pressure Putin to take a tougher stance on Ukraine.