RUSSIAN COURT CHARGES FOUR MEN WITH ACTS OF TERRORISM
The Islamic State group, or IS, said it carried out Friday’s outrage at Crocus City Hall, and posted video.
Russian officials have claimed, without evidence, Ukrainian involvement. Kyiv says the claim is “absurd”.
The four were named as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Fayzov.
Video showed three of them being marched by masked police into Basmanny district court in the Russian capital. All appeared injured.
Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda’s eyes were blackened and the latter’s ear was heavily bandaged – reportedly from it being partially severed during his arrest.
Mirzoyev also appeared to have a torn plastic bag wrapped around his neck
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday rejected the claims, and his military intelligence directorate said it was “absurd” to suggest the men were trying to cross a heavily mined border, teeming with hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers, to reach safety.
Seven other people have been arrested in Russia suspected of aiding the attack.
The US warned Moscow earlier this month of a possible large attack in Russia, then issued a public advisory to citizens in the country.
The alert was roundly dismissed by the Kremlin as propaganda and an attempt to meddle in its presidential election.
Washington said after the attack that it had no reason to doubt the IS claim.
It would not be the first time IS and its allies have attacked Russia or its interests abroad.
The group claimed the bombing of a Russian plane over Egypt in 2015 with 224 people on board, most of them Russian citizens. It also claimed a 2017 bomb attack on the St Petersburg metro, which killed 15 people.
Security analysts say the group considers Russia a primary target for a number of reasons, including the country’s role in destroying IS’s powerbase in Syria while securing President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, Moscow’s two brutal wars in Muslim-majority Chechnya in 1994-2009 and the Soviet-era invasion of Afghanistan.
IS-K chiefly operates in Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia and its name is based on an old term for the region.
It is among the most able and active of the IS offshoots, and was responsible for deadly suicide attacks at Kabul airport during the chaotic American withdrawal of August and September 2021.
(BBC News)
