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Russian President Putin is blaming Ukraine for the terrorist attack near Moscow.
Other voices blame internal security deficiencies.
MOSCOW - As Vladimir Putin spoke about the worst terrorist attack to hit Russia in 20 years, he brushed aside the glaring failure of his security state to prevent it.
At least 137 people died in the attack, even though the United States had clearly warned on March 7 that an attack on a concert hall could be imminent.
Putin also did not mention the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack on the Crocus City concert hall on Friday and which Putin repeatedly promoted as an enemy during Russia's long military intervention in Syria.
In 2017, Russia's president declared victory over the Islamic State.
The Crocus City Hall event center burned down after an attack on the western edge of Moscow.
© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/dpa
Putin blames Ukraine for the terrorist attack
Putin instead used his five-minute televised address on Saturday to emphasize that the four perpetrators were "moving towards Ukraine" when they were arrested and that "an opportunity for them to cross the state border was prepared by the Ukrainian side."
He did not directly blame Ukraine, which itself has denied any involvement.
But a reference to “Nazis” – Putin’s usual term for the Ukrainian government – made it clear that he blames Kiev.
But the gruesome videos of attackers using automatic weapons to kill innocent concertgoers in cold blood and setting fire to one of the Russian capital's most popular entertainment venues thwart Putin's efforts to portray Russia as strong, united and resilient.
New term in office: assassination attempt follows shortly after the presidential election in Russia
The attack came just five days after the Russian president's triumphant claim to a new six-year term in office - in an election that was heavily controlled by the Kremlin and widely denounced abroad as not democratic enough.
Putin used the election to secure broad public support for his policies.
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A day of mourning was observed in Russia on Sunday, with people laying flowers at a memorial in front of the concert hall.
The company that owns the destroyed facility has promised to rebuild it.
The Russian Investigative Committee said 62 of the victims had been identified and that DNA tests were being carried out on additional victims found at the scene of the fire.
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Suspected men enter the courtroom injured during the terrorist attack trial
A video released by the investigative committee shows suspects in the attack on Sunday evening being led blindfolded into a Moscow court.
Four men - Dalerjon Mirzoev, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Muhammadsobir Fayzov and Shamsidin Fariduni - have been charged with an act of terrorism and face life imprisonment, Russian news agency Ria
Novosti
reported .
Photos from the courtroom showed one of the men with a black eye when the blindfold was removed;
another was in a wheelchair and was accompanied by doctors,
Ria Novosti
reported.
Despite the Russian president's attempt to link the issue to Ukraine, analysts, former U.S. security officials and members of the Russian elite said the attack underscored the weaknesses of Putin's wartime regime.
These were also evident when Yevgeny Prigozhin led his Wagner mercenaries in a brief mutiny to overthrow top defense officials last June.
President shows weakness: “Putin always disappears in difficult moments”
“The regime shows its weakness in such critical situations, like in the Prigozhin mutiny,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
Although Prigozhin gave up the uprising at the time, the damage was obvious.
Then, as with the events this weekend, Putin did not appear in public for hours before finally commenting on the situation.
“In difficult moments, Putin always disappears,” says Kolesnikov.
Just three days before the Crocus City attack, Putin dismissed the U.S. warning of a possible impending terrorist attack as "outright blackmail" and an "attempt to frighten and destabilize our society."
But given his authoritarian exercise of power and the fact that few are willing to question him, it is unlikely that the Russian leader will face criticism or consequences for not taking the warning more seriously.
Zelensky: Russians killing on Ukrainian soil could stop any terrorist
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the attack: “These hundreds of thousands of Russians now killing on Ukrainian soil would certainly be enough to stop any terrorist.
And if the Russians are willing to die in silence in the 'crocus halls' and not ask their security and intelligence services any questions, then Putin will try to use such a situation for his personal advantage again."
When Russia has been hit by terrorist attacks in the past, Putin has often accused the West of being behind them - particularly after the Beslan school siege in 2004, in which over 330 hostages died.
At the time, he claimed that the attack was orchestrated by those who wanted to weaken Russia and aimed at its “disintegration.”
Looking back at his first terms in office: Putin used attacks to secure his rule
Analysts say the Russian leader will almost certainly try to do so again this time.
A leading Kremlin propagandist, Margarita Simonyan, the head of state broadcaster
RT
, claimed earlier on Saturday that the Americans' warning about the attack suggested that they were involved in the preparation of the attack.
Former U.S. officials and analysts say the rhetoric of collectively blaming Ukraine and the West is likely to continue and cause further incitement as Putin tries to mobilize his country for a protracted war.
Others say the bloodshed brings back troubling memories of a time Putin thought was long behind him.
During the president's first two terms in office in the 2000s, Russia was plagued by mass casualty terrorist attacks, which Putin later used to justify a crackdown by the military and security services and strengthen his rule.
Moscow businessman on the attack: “There should have been a lot of police there”
Reference is made to the apparent lack of adequate security measures at Crocus City, a massive entertainment and shopping center on the outskirts of Moscow, despite warnings from the US government.
“Crocus City is a huge place with lots of concert halls,” says a Moscow businessman, pointing out that the offices of the Moscow regional government are nearby.
“There should have been serious security and a lot of police on site.”
“There is a lack of responsibility for security at large public events,” said the businessman, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
“Almost the same thing happened 20 years ago in the siege of the Nord-Ost Theater, and nothing has changed since then.” He is referring to the 2002 hostage-taking in which more than 115 people died after Chechen terrorists seized a theater in the center had taken control of Moscow.
Mourners light candles in Mytishchi, northeast of Moscow, to remember the victims of the March 22 terrorist attack on the Krasnogorsk Krokus townhouse.
March 24th was declared a national day of mourning.
© Anna Nosova/Imago
Surveillance instead of protection: failures of the security services in Russia
A Russian scientist with close ties to senior Moscow diplomats made similar comments about Russia's failure to prevent Friday night's attack.
“It is clear that we will be looking for Ukrainian fingerprints and possibly those of Western security services,” said the academic, who wished to remain anonymous because Putin's regime often takes action against critics.
“But any investigation is likely to reveal failings by our security services.”
Russia's security services have poured enormous resources into monitoring the activities of opponents of Putin's regime, using facial recognition technology to track and question those who took part in recent protests against Putin's election or paid tribute to the opposition leader who died in prison last month Alexei Navalny resigned.
Russia has faced Islamic State activity before
But ensuring adequate protection for citizens from threats posed by known terrorist groups appears to have slipped down the priority list, analysts said.
This is despite the fact that the country has faced repeated terrorist attacks in recent years, including two that were attributed to or claimed by the Islamic State.
Earlier this month, Russia's domestic intelligence service (FSB) said it had foiled an Islamic State-planned attack on a synagogue in Moscow and "neutralized" an unknown number of the group's fighters in a raid in the Kaluga region, southwest of the capital.
Kazakhstan later confirmed that two of its citizens had been killed in the raid.
Last year, the
Tass
news agency reported that the FSB had killed two more Islamic State fighters who were planning an attack on a chemical plant in Kaluga.
A suspect is escorted by police and FSB officers in the Basmanny District Court.
© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Former US intelligence officer: Security deficiencies in Russia are the rule
“Everywhere there is the feeling that we live in a police state that closely monitors every citizen,” says Andrei Kolesnikov from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“People are now often stopped and checked at the entrance to the subway.
Security precautions have become much stricter at airports.
… It really begs the question of how something like this could even happen.”
Others believe that security deficiencies in Russia are not the exception, but the rule.
“Unless it's a high-profile public event like the Olympics or Putin is involved, ... Russia's security vigilance is always low,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect sensitive information to discuss matters.
“You really need a sophisticated system that targets these types of threats, and that has been focused on other areas.”
Reference to IS terrorist attack: Suspected attacker speaks Tajik
In his televised speech on Saturday, Putin did not address the assessment of U.S. officials, who say there is "no reason to doubt the claim" that an Afghanistan-based branch of the Islamic State was responsible for the attack.
However, Russian state media broadcast footage of at least two of the suspected attackers being interrogated.
Including one in which the suspect speaks Tajik.
Tajikistan is a Central Asian country bordering Afghanistan.
The former U.S. officials say the potential terrorist threat posed by Central Asia has become a blind spot for the Putin regime as it focuses on pursuing political enemies in Russia and the threats posed by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, including drone and cross-border attacks.
Russia as a terrorist target: Many people from Central Asia joined IS
“They have not prioritized the threat of ISIS, which includes many Central Asians,” said Douglas London, a former senior CIA officer who specializes in counterterrorism and Central Asia and is an associate professor at the School of Foreign Service. at Georgetown University.
“Thousands of Central Asians joined the Islamic State, and many returned from Syria and Iraq after the loss of the caliphate.
Many of them rose to very high positions and came from either the army, police or intelligence services of a number of Central Asian states.”
“The Central Asian element of ISIS has always targeted Russia,” London adds.
“I don’t think Russian intelligence is shocked and surprised that there was a problem.
It just wasn’t high enough on their agenda.”
Mary Ilyushina in Berlin, Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, and Kostiantyn Khudov in Kiev contributed to this report.
To the authors
Catherine Belton
is an international investigative reporter for The Washington Post covering Russia.
She is the author of Putin's People, a New York Times Critics' Book of 2020 and a Book of the Year for the Times, the Economist and the Financial Times.
Belton has also worked for Reuters and the Financial Times.
Robyn Dixon
is a foreign correspondent on her third visit to Russia after reporting there for nearly a decade since the early 1990s.
She has been the Washington Post's Moscow bureau chief since November 2019.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on March 25, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.