Russia brings four alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice. Immigrants from Central Asia fear more harassment in the country.

Police drag one of the suspects to Moscow court Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/ap

Kyiv taz | Under tight security measures, four alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack near Moscow were taken to a detention hearing on Sunday afternoon. At the request of the prosecutor, this took place behind closed doors in the Basmanny court. Two of the four suspects reportedly pleaded guilty to carrying out the terrorist attack. If convicted, they face life in prison.

Obviously, the men had suffered serious abuse before. Bruises, swelling and wounds marked their faces. One of them could no longer walk and had to be carried to court in a hospital chair. What caught attention was that the accused Shamsidin Fariduni only had a makeshift bandage on his right ear. Most of the suspects barely spoke Russian and had to be provided with an interpreter to act as a linguistic mediator.

The Russian-language news portal Nastojaschee Vremja showed a photo of the audience. It comes from the Gray Zone Telegram channel, which is associated with structures of the disbanded private army “Wagner”. The image shows a person lying on the ground, apparently Shamsidin Fariduni, with his pants down. The article also states that the TA-57 military communications device, a device for electrical torture, was connected to the person. Apparently, Nastojaschee Vremja speculates, the wires of the device are connected to the suspect's genitals.

This photo is not the first possible evidence that Russian security forces tortured suspects in the Crocus City Hall attack during interrogations. According to Nastojaschee Vremja, the same Gray Zone Telegram channel had published a video of the arrest of Rajab Alizadeh, 30, in the forest the day before.

It shows a man with his hands tied lying on the ground and surrounded by security forces. The detainee, who is bleeding from the right side of his head, is missing his right ear. According to Nastojaschee Vremja, the video shows how a member of the security forces tries to put the severed part of the ear into his mouth and says: “Eat, bitch!”

Medvedev shaker

“Should we kill them? Yes, absolutely,” the Rusnews Telegram channel quotes Dmitry Medvedev, vice president of the Russian Security Council, as calling for the death penalty for the attackers. According to Medvedev, it is important to kill everyone who was somehow involved in this attack, whether financially, out of sympathy or through concrete help.

“Kill them all,” said the former Russian president. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had previously stated that the reintroduction of the death penalty was not being discussed in the Kremlin. And the head of the State Duma Administration Committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, warned that a debate on the death penalty “could lead us in the wrong direction.”

In the face of new bomb fears, the atmosphere in Russian cities remains very tense. In Moscow, several hundred people were evacuated from the Pirogov medical-surgical center and the City and Mosaik shopping centers due to bomb threats. In St. Petersburg, the Sverdlovsk region and Ufa, shopping centers and educational institutions were also evacuated due to bomb threats, Russian opposition Telegram channel Rusnews reports.

Seas of flowers, stuffed animals, letters of condolence at spontaneous memorial sites and flickering candles characterize the image of Russian cities from Brest to Vladivostok in the days after Friday's massacre at Crocus City Hall. Thousands of people flock to Crocus Town Hall in Krasnogorsk to remember at least 137 people who died on Friday.

In a sign of solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attack, the flags of the embassies of several countries of the Russian Federation, including Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, China, the Netherlands, the United States, Slovakia, France and Sweden, flew at half mast.

Rocket attack on Kyiv

It is becoming increasingly clear that Russia could become a little more authoritarian after the attack. Immigrants from Central Asia, in particular, fear an even stricter practice, given that all of the alleged attackers come from Central Asia. In Yekaterinburg, owners were reportedly asked to provide lists of employees from Central Asia under threat of fines.

And State Duma deputy Mikhail Sheremet calls for limiting the immigration of Central Asians for the duration of the “special operation” for reasons of “internal security.” The pro-government Telegram channel Baza claims to have learned that the Tajik community in Russia asks their relatives not to leave home at night. And Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry advises its citizens against traveling to Russia.

Ukraine could also become a victim of the new situation. Since, according to Vladimir Putin, the perpetrators wanted to flee to Ukraine, according to his logic, Ukraine is involved in the terrorist attack. Seven people were injured in a rocket attack on the Ukrainian capital on Monday, two of whom require hospital treatment. Also on Monday, a man was killed and four other people were wounded in a Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol.