AOn Friday evening, images of the violence made the rounds on Russian Telegram channels. You can see several gunmen, at least some of them in camouflage clothing, opening fire on visitors to the “Crocus City Hall”, obviously indiscriminately and probably with assault rifles. Such images came from the foyer of the event center on the outskirts of Moscow as well as from the hall itself. The domestic secret service FSB said that 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Anyone who likes music in Russia's capital probably knows the location of the bloody attack: concerts take place almost every evening in the “Crocus City Hall”. The Russian rock group “Piknik” was scheduled to perform there that evening. She remained uninjured, the massacre – as everything quickly pointed to this, based on the pictures of numerous people killed – began before the concert, with shots fired at those who wanted to rush into the hall. The building burst into flames, and in one of the videos from eyewitnesses it is said that the attackers set it on fire. There were also explosions. There was talk that around a hundred people could still be inside the building.
According to the state news agency Tass, there were also people on the roof waiting for help. The “Crocus City Hall” holds around 6,200 spectators and the concert was sold out. Firefighters and police officers from various special operations groups came to the event center and stormed the building. Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the region around the Moscow capital, on whose territory the event center is located, also came. Onlookers and media representatives were pushed back further and further into the parking lot in front of the building, and arrests were made there, while bodies were carried out of the building in black plastic bags.
Embassies warned against visiting crowds of people in Moscow
A correspondent for the state news agency Ria Novosti spoke of three gunmen in Flecktarn who opened fire with assault rifles. They then detonated an explosive device that started the fire. The people in the hall lay on the floor and dragged him out after 15 to 20 minutes. Video recordings show scenes of panic. Some reports also mentioned more perpetrators, five or even more.
In the Telegram channel “Mash,” an alleged eyewitness was quoted as saying that there were “at least five” attackers, namely “bearded men” who looked like “prepared and trained fighters.” That would point to Islamists. A Telegram channel with connections to the security apparatus published photos of five young men with beards and wrote, naming three names, that they were looking for suspects who came from the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia – but quickly withdrew the message and photo.
Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, spoke of a “terrible tragedy” and condoled with the families of those killed. Russia's human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, spoke of a terrorist attack, and the investigative committee opened corresponding proceedings. Two weeks ago, the United States Embassy in Moscow and subsequently the embassies of other Western countries warned against visiting gatherings of people in the capital that could be attacked by “extremists”. President Vladimir Putin criticized this on Tuesday as an attempt to “intimidate and destabilize our society.” Putin's spokesman said on Friday evening that the president had been informed about what was happening in the “Crocus City Hall” within the first few minutes.
In 2002, North Caucasian terrorists took control of hundreds of visitors to Moscow's Dubrovka Theater and demanded that Russian troops withdraw from Chechnya. FSB special forces ended the hostage crisis by pumping a toxic gas mixture into the theater's ventilation system, storming the building and shooting the drugged terrorists. According to official figures, 130 hostages were also killed, and according to unofficial figures, even more. In Russia there have also been attacks by Islamist terrorists such as those from the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS).
The investigative journalist Christo Grosev, who, among other things, was involved in solving the assassination attempt on opposition politician Alexei Navalnyj, who recently died in custody in 2020, now told the exiled Russian broadcaster “TV Dozhd” that the FSB had recently arrested IS terrorists. But the GRU military intelligence service itself trains Afghan fighters in Russia. The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian dissidents fighting on Ukraine's side denied involvement in the attack on Crocus City Hall.
But on Friday evening there were increasing voices in Moscow seeking to blame the attack on Ukraine. Leading others, Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's deputy in the chairmanship of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram that if it were found that “those were terrorists of the Kiev regime,” they would have to be found and “mercilessly destroyed,” including the official representatives of the state, who committed such a crime.” Upper House member Viktor Bondaryov told Ria Novosti that it was a terrorist attack by Ukrainian divers. A Russian Foreign Ministry special representative for “crimes of the Kiev regime” said Russia would request a UN Security Council meeting on the attack on Crocus City Hall. At the same time, the security authorities announced that the perpetrators were still being sought.