Attack in Moscow: “Even if you don’t see tears on his face, it doesn’t mean that Putin isn’t suffering,” says the Kremlin

Nearly a week after the brutal terrorist attack in a concert hall near Moscow that left 144 dead, Vladimir Putin so far he did not participate in any ceremony honoring the victims of the attack nor did he visit their families or the wounded. However, the Kremlin reported that Russia’s president was sorry for what happened and left a surprising clarification.

“The Head of State feels personally and fully involved in this type of tragedy. Believe me, even if you don’t see tears on your face, it doesn’t mean you don’t suffer.“presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a brief interview on Saturday.

On March 22, gunmen entered Crocus City Hall, a large concert hall near Moscow, and began shooting into the crowd before setting the building on fire.

According to the latest count of Russian rescue workers, at least 144 people were killed and 551 injured in the attack claimed by the jihadist group Isis-K, the deadliest attack in Russia in the last twenty years.

After the tragic attack, the Russian president waited until the next day to speak publicly, and on Thursday the Kremlin made it known that the president had no intention of immediately meeting the families of the victims or traveling to the site of the attack.

Putin, with a past as an agent of the old Soviet secret services, has strengthened in recent decades the profile of an immovable man with a cold character.

On the Sunday after the attack, he was filmed lighting candles in memory of the victims in Novo-Ogaryovo, one of Russia’s presidential residences on the outskirts of Moscow.

The tribute of several Western diplomats

Representatives of the diplomatic corps of a dozen countries went this Saturday to the Crocus City Hall concert hall, where a brutal terrorist attack took place on Friday last week that claimed the lives of at least 144 people, to pay tribute to the victims.

The ceremony, attended by diplomats from the European Union, the United States, Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States, began with a minute’s silence to remember the victims of the attack.

Subsequently, diplomats present released white balloons that rose into the sky and placed flowers at the foot of the makeshift memorial in front of the concert hall venue.

The spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, María Zajárova, published on Telegram moments of the ceremony in which diplomats can be seen with bouquets of red flowers in their hands, and the memorial made up of candles, flowers and soft toys, the latter referring to minors who lost their lives as a result of the attack.

Hours earlier, a mass had been celebrated next to the concert hall, officiated by the Orthodox hierarch Tomá, bishop of Odintzovo, on the occasion of the ninth day of the terrorist attack.

What is known about the terrorist attack in Moscow

According to the latest official data, the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall, 20 kilometers from the center of Moscow, caused at least 144 deaths and more than 150 people hospitalized.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the arrest of eleven people in connection with the attack. Among those arrested are four suspected terrorists who participated in the attack.

The suspects, who resisted, were arrested on a road in the Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine, from where, according to Russian authorities, they intended to flee.

Russia has admitted that the attack on the outskirts of Moscow was carried out by Islamists, but insists it is looking for “a Ukrainian imprint” and says it has evidence of Kiev’s financing of terrorists.