President Vladimir Putin of Russia has acknowledged for the first time that “radical Islamists” had carried out the attack on a concert hall near Moscow, while insisting that Ukraine could still have played a role.
“This atrocity can be just an element in a series of attempts of those who have been at war with our country since 2014,” Putin said during a publicly broadcast meeting with government officials, referring to the Ukrainian government.
President Putin questioned why the four suspects in the Friday attack, which killed at least 139 people, had been captured in a part of Russia that borders Ukraine.
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Russian state media has been pushing the narrative that Ukraine was behind the attack, even though the Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The U.S. and France both said that an Islamic State entity was responsible, and Ukraine has denied involvement.
Russian investigators have shown no evidence that the four suspects, who are migrant workers from Tajikistan, have any connection to Ukraine.
The four men looked battered when they were arraigned, and videos of them being tortured and beaten during interrogation circulated widely on Russian social media.
