Russian President Vladimir Putin told his nation in a televised address Saturday that 11 people had been detained in connection with Friday’s deadly attack on a popular Moscow concert venue, including the four gunmen who had opened fire, killing at least 133.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Friday night attack, already one of the most deadly in modern Russian history, which left about 140,000 square feet of the venue in Krasnogorsk in flames
according to Russia’s emergency services. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information,
told The Washington Post that the United States had “no reason to doubt” the claim from the Islamic State.
The U.S. government
issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7 that described the risk of a “planned terrorist attack in Moscow — potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement on Friday.
“The U.S. Government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its long-standing ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson said.
On Friday, Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev called for a nuclear strike.
“Let’s give the civilian population of Ukraine 48 hours to leave the cities and finally end this war with the victorious defeat of the enemy. Using all forces and means,” Malofeev wrote on Telegram.
The FSB public relations office said Saturday that the assailants were “intending to cross the border into Ukraine,” where they had contacts.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has denied any responsibility for Friday’s attack,
writing on social media that Ukraine “certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions” and that “everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency [said Russia] would probably use the fallout to build support for their war in Ukraine and possibly to launch a second round of mobilization.