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Four key suspects were questioned Sunday over the largest attack on Russian soil in more than a decade, as the country marked a day of mourning for the assault, which killed at least 137 people and injured 180.
Flags at half-mast and Russians carried flowers to the site of Friday’s attack, a vast concert hall on the outskirts of the capital that is now a burnt-out shell after a fire set by the attackers destroyed the building.
The jihadist group Isis claimed responsibility shortly after the attack and shared a photograph of four attackers, as well as a video filmed by one of the men during the assault.
Russian law enforcement officials said on Sunday that the main suspects, four gunmen captured by security services shortly after the attack, had been taken to the main headquarters of the Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigative body, for questioning. .
He shared a video of at least three suspects being led out of a white van by armed men, with their hands tied and their eyes blindfolded with blindfolds and scarves. They would later be transferred to Moscow’s Basmannyy Court, which was expected to decide that they should be detained while the investigation progressed.
Russia’s Interior Ministry said the four main suspects were foreign citizens. Reports in Russian media and interrogation videos posted online suggest the men were from Tajikistan, a Central Asian country from where large numbers of people have been recruited into extremist Islamist organizations.
The FSB security service said it arrested the four main suspects as they tried to flee the country.
Videos shared on social media, apparently filmed by security services on Saturday, showed the four arrested in a wooded area. The Investigative Committee said the men were captured in the Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine.
In the videos the men appeared bloodied and injured, suggesting they had been brutally interrogated by Russian security services. One was apparently mutilated, according to the footage. Another was filmed being interviewed through a translator in a hospital ward after being seriously injured, apparently losing the use of one eye. Only one of the men appeared to speak a little Russian.
The Investigative Committee said it found two Kalashnikov rifles, 28 magazines and more than 500 rounds of ammunition at the scene of the attack.
Russian officials have sought to direct popular anger over the attack toward Ukraine, which has strongly denied any involvement. In a brief televised speech on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made no mention of ISIS or Islamic terrorism, despite the group claiming responsibility.
Kiev Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a statement on the social media platform even though there is no evidence of this.” support such claims.”
Putin spoke with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon in a phone call in which Rahmon condemned the attack and said the two countries will continue to work together to fight terrorism and extremism, the Tajik government press service said on Sunday .
Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, is a poor country where large numbers of people travel to Russia as migrant workers. Hundreds of its citizens joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2014-2015, and Tajiks now make up a large share of ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, the militant group’s Afghan branch, according to analysts tracking extremist groups. The United States has said it believes ISIS-K is responsible for Friday’s attack in Moscow.
In his address to the country, Putin promised that Russia will find and punish all those involved in the attack, “whoever they are and whoever sent them.”
“We will identify and punish all those behind the terrorists, who prepared this evil act, this attack on Russia,” he said. Some Russian propagandists and experts began calling for the death penalty.
On Sunday, state news agencies shared a video of Putin in a church at his official residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, lighting a candle in memory of those killed in the attack.
The number of injured rose to 180 on Sunday, according to the Moscow region’s Health Ministry, which shared the list of names of people hospitalized. The death toll, currently reported by law enforcement at 137 people, including three children, could rise further as emergency services continue to work at the scene. More than 60 bodies have been identified so far.
Gunmen stormed the building on Friday, firing into the crowd before a rock concert by the band Piknik, while other victims died in the fire after attackers set off explosions in the hall.
The assault shocked Russia, triggering a wave of grief and reminiscent of the Islamist uprisings that marked the first decade of Putin’s rule. The US embassy in Moscow and missions in six other Western countries had issued alerts in early March warning of attacks on public places, including concerts.
Putin had phone calls with the leaders of Turkey, Syria and several countries of the former Soviet Union after the attack.
Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kiev