The suspects behind the Moscow concert hall massacre said they were promised money in Kiev
People lay flowers at the makeshift memorial dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall venue outside Moscow on March 26, 2024. © Kirill Kallinikov / Sputnik
Two escape routes were prepared in Ukraine for the terrorists who attacked a packed concert hall outside Moscow last month, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday. The FSB showed snippets from interrogation videos in which the suspects confessed that they had been promised money in Kiev.
On March 22, four Tajik nationals opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall music venue and then set the building on fire.
A total of 145 people were killed and more than 500 injured in the attack.
The suspected assailants were detained the next day while trying to flee to Ukraine by car, the authorities said. More suspects were arrested in the following days, most of them of Tajik origin.
The jihadist group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility for the attack. FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov, however, has suggested that the US, UK, and Ukraine may also be linked to the assault, possibly using Islamists as proxies. Ukraine and its Western backers have denied any involvement.
In interrogation videos aired on Russian TV at the weekend, the suspects said they were following instructions from a handler they knew as ‘Sayfullo’. The authorities are currently working to determine his identity.
The handler told the suspects to escape to Ukraine, where they expected to receive 1 million rubles each ($11,000), they added.
“Sayfullo told us that guys would wait for us at the Ukrainian border and that they would help us to cross the border and arrive in Kiev,” suspect Muhammadsobir Fayzov told his interrogator.
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According to investigators, the suspects took the M3 highway that leads to the border with Ukraine, but were eventually intercepted about 140km (87 miles) from Ukraine’s Sumy Region.
Suspect Shamsidin Fariduni said they had been told to “abandon the car near the border” and then call their handler for further instructions on how to cross into Ukraine.
Russian officials previously stated that a “window” to cross the border had been arranged on the Ukrainian side.The FSB claimed on Sunday that the Ukrainians had been conducting “demining activities” near the villages of Chuykovka and Sopych, pointing to two possible escape routes. According to investigators, the suspects were expected to destroy their vehicle and cross the border on foot, using woodlands as cover.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said earlier this week that pro-Ukrainian images had been discovered on a phone belonging to one of the suspects.
