‘Walking and shooting, as if out for a stroll’ - murder in Moscow
“I prayed that none of them would raise their heads and look up at us.”
Andrei, survivor of the Crocus City Hall terror attack
The killers walked calmly through the lobby of the venue “as if they were out for a stroll”, shooting as they went, before storming the auditorium where concertgoers had fled in search of refuge, a lawyer caught up in the Moscow music venue attack recalled yesterday.
Andrei, 58, had gone to Crocus City Hall with his wife to see a sold-out concert by Picnic, a rock band. More than 6000 people are thought to have been at the venue.
The couple were in a cafe on the second floor when they heard shots in the lobby below and saw people begin to flee.
Andrei, a veteran of the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan, recognised the sound of a Kalashnikov and saw three bearded men of “eastern appearance” - thought to mean Central Asians - entering the lobby.
“Slowly, unhurriedly, confidently and calmly they walked down the hall, in parallel firing a machinegun at people. Walking and shooting, as if they were out for a stroll.”
One of them ran out of cartridges - he stopped and calmly changed them. Two floors above, the couple hid behind a pillar. “I prayed that none of them would raise their heads and look up at us,” Andrei said.
He survived the worst terrorist attack on Russian soil for two decades. It ended with the concert hall burnt to a shell - and President Vladimir Putin facing fresh questions about his leadership days after he secured another six years in power in elections that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet era.
By yesterday, 11 suspects were in custody and the official death toll had risen to 133. Almost 200 were injured. The victims appeared to have died either from gunshot wounds or from inhaling smoke from explosive devices.
The carnage inside the venue was appalling: mothers hugging their children in a final embrace were among the 28 bodies found in one of the lavatories, according to Baza, a Russian media channel with ties to the security establishment.
Isis-Khorasan, or Isis-K, an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, took responsibility, a claim later confirmed by US authorities. Russian officials reported that the perpetrators were from Tajikistan, a largely Muslim former Soviet republic.
Hours after the shooting began, Putin declared a national day of mourning. His five-minute televised address sought to link the attack to Ukraine, which Russia invaded two years ago, but made no mention of Islamic State.
“All four perpetrators of the terrorist act who shot and killed people have been detained,” Putin said.
On Telegram, videos were shared of one man with a bloodied face and another visibly shaking while they were interrogated by Russian soldiers.
Bound and speaking in broken Russian, one man apparently of central Asian origin, his bottom lip trembling, said that he had been paid 500,000 rubles (about NZ$9000) to massacre unarmed civilians.
The Kremlin instructed Russian state media to highlight the “Ukrainian traces” of early investigations, according to Meduza, an independent outlet based in Riga, citing two unnamed sources.
But holes in the Russian accounts started to emerge after the Tajik foreign ministry denied that three of the alleged perpetrators named on Russian Telegram channels had been involved - and even produced pictures of two men, Rivodjiddin Islomov and Makhmadrasul Nasriddinov, apparently holding up their passports back in Tajikistan. The Tajik foreign ministry said the third man, Rustam Nazarov, “is currently working as a taxi driver in Samara”.
John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, said that there was “no indication at this time that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved”. There was further confusion when it emerged the suspects may have been fleeing to neighbouring Belarus rather than Ukraine.
Kyiv vehemently denied any involvement and the Ukrainian foreign ministry warned that Putin would try to exploit the tragedy to “boost mobilisation”.
The Times