Russia is experiencing a day of national mourning and deep pain after the massacre that took place in the Moscow theater

This Sunday Russia holds a day of national mourning and profound fraudr after the massacre in a theater on the outskirts of Moscow which caused 137 deaths, in the deadliest attack in Europe claimed by the group calling itself the Islamic State (ISIS).

“The whole country is in mourning,” Russian public television channel Rossia 24 said at the start of its programs.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin seemed to try to associate the attack with Ukraine, something Kiev openly rejects. He was filmed on Sunday lighting candles in memory of the victims in Novo-Ogaryovo, one of Russia’s presidential residences outside Moscow.

Rossia 24 transmits images of an immense digital panel installed on a wall of the attached concert hall where you can see a candle on a black background with the legend “Crocus Town Hall. 03/22/2024. We are in mourning…”.

The museums and theaters of Moscow announced it they would be closed on weekendsand the capital’s restaurants have promised to donate part of their Sunday profits to the families of the victims.

“People don’t smile anymore, there’s no joy anymore“Valentina Karenina, originally from Siberia but passing through Moscow, told AFP.

“My daughter called me to ask me not to go out” for fear of a new attack, said the 73-year-old woman, who went to light a candle in a church near the famous Red Square, now closed to the public.

Russia has provided no new information on the progress of the investigation and continues without mentioning the claims of the jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS) for the attack, in which At least 137 people were killed and 152 injured.

The toll could rise as rescuers continue to search through the building’s rubble.

Four men broke into Crocus City Hall on Friday eveningin the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk, they shot at the audience and set fire to part of the hall.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Saturday to punish those responsible for the killing “ferocious terrorist act” and ensured that four men who were trying to escape to Ukraine were arrested.

These four people, all “foreign citizens”, were detained in the Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine and Belarusaccording to the authorities.

The FSB (Russian Security Service) stated that the suspects had “contacts” in Ukraine, faced Russian military intervention from 2022, and planned to flee to this country after the attack, but provided no evidence of this alleged connection nor provided any details. on his, his nature.

Kiev denied any link and President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of trying to “blame” Ukraine for this attack.

This attack is the bloodiest in Russia in the last two decades and the deadliest committed in Europe by ISIS.

The jihadist group, which Russia fights in Syria and is also active in the Russian Caucasus, It has already committed attacks in the country since the late 2010s.

The United States revealed on Saturday that it had warned Russia in early March of a possible “terrorist” attack at a location in Moscow with “large gatherings” of people.

According to the SITE terrorism research group, ISIS has released on its social networks a video apparently made by the attackers in which they appearenter the concert hall and shoot people.

On the streets of Moscow there are those who don’t believe much in the involvement of Ukraine, a country attacked by the Russian army in February 2022.

“I believe that Islamic extremists ISIS are behind this terrorist act. Ukraine also commits terrorist acts, but this is more in line with what Islamists do” insisted Vomik Aliev, a 22-year-old medical student.

Ruslana Baranovskaia, a 35-year-old jurist, noted that “the United States and the United Kingdom had warned their citizens” of the risk of an attack, so “why didn’t our special services know anything about it?”

However, for Valeri Chernov, 52, the involvement of Ukraine and the West in the attack is entirely credible.

“Who’s behind it? The enemies of Russia and Putin who seek to destabilize power. It’s really possible that Ukraine and the West used ISIS, he said.

Another outstanding question is the nationality of the perpetrators of the attack.

According to Russian media and MP Alexander Jinstein, some of the suspects are originally from Tajikistanformer Soviet republic in Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon told Putin on Sunday that the perpetrators of the attack “have no nationality, homeland or religion.”