‘Who ordered it?’: Vladimir Putin blames Ukraine, ‘radical Islamists’ for Moscow terror attack

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday said the Moscow terror attack was carried out by “radical Islamists’. However, he refrained from naming ISIS, the terror group that has claimed responsibility for the dastardly attack.

In an address to the nation on Telegram, the Russian leader suggested that Ukraine could have played a role in the attack to “show their own population that not all is lost for the Kyiv regime”.

139 people died and 182 injured in Moscow after four men barged into the Crocus City Hall on Friday night during a concert and sprayed bullets. The Russian authorities have arrested four men of Tajik origin and have slapped terrorism charges against them.

Vladimir Putin said radical Islamists carried out the attack.

“We know that the crime was carried out by the hand of radical Islamists with an ideology that the Muslim world has fought for centuries,” he said.

He claimed the attackers were nabbed while escaping to Ukraine. “The question that arises is who benefits from this?” Putin added.

Putin said the attack could have been linked to the “neo-Nazi Kyiv regime”.

“This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime.”

“We know by whose hand the crime against Russia and its people was committed. But what is of interest to us is who ordered it,” he added.

Putin said the attackers wanted to sow panic. But as Russian forces were advancing through the Ukraine war theatre, he said, it could also be intended to “show their own population that not all is lost for the Kyiv regime”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that his country was behind the attack. He said for Putin, “everyone is a terrorist, except himself, though he has been thriving on terror for two decades.”

“When he is gone, the need for terror and violence will disappear with him,” Zelensky said.

The two countries have been fighting a protracted war since February 2022, when Putin ordered the Russian forces to invade Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the United States said Putin knows ISIS carried out the attack.

White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said: “This was a terrorist attack that was conducted by ISIS. Russian President Putin understands that and he knows that very well. And look, there is absolutely no evidence that the government of Ukraine had anything to do with this attack. We’ve been very clear about that. I do want to step back for a second and offer our deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones, and those who are injured because of this horrific attack. We continue to strongly condemn the heinous terrorist attack in Moscow. As we said before in early March, the United States government shared information with Russia about a planned terror attack in Moscow. We were very clear about that…ISIS bears the sole responsibility here.”

French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that available information “indicates indeed that it was an entity of the Islamic State that instigated this attack.”

“This group also tried to commit several actions on our own soil,” he said during a visit to French Guiana.

With inputs from AFP, AP, ANI, Reuters