The Crocus City Hall, targeted in March by an attack which left at least 145 dead, will no longer be a concert hall, the Russian agency Ria Novosti announced on Saturday, citing the governor of the Moscow region. “There will be no more concert hall there”Governor Andrei Vorobiov told RIA Novosti when asked about the Moscow region’s plans to restore the building, which was ravaged by a massive fire.
On March 22, gunmen opened fire on Crocus City Hall on the northwestern outskirts of the Russian capital and set it on fire. The attack killed at least 145 people and wounded 360, making it the worst terrorist attack in Russia since 2004. More than 20 people have since been arrested, including the four suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia that borders Afghanistan.
Although the attack was quickly claimed by the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS), Russian authorities continued to see the hand of Ukraine. kyiv has always categorically rejected any involvement. In May, Russia for the first time attributed coordination of the attack to ISIS, without denying all its accusations against kyiv.
Russia, scene of new attacks on Sunday
“It was established that the preparations, financing, attack and withdrawal of terrorists were coordinated via the Internet by members of the Khorasan Province group”the Afghan branch of ISIS, declared the director of the Russian security services (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, quoted by the RIA Novosti agency. “The investigation continues, but we can already say with certainty that Ukrainian military intelligence was directly involved in the attack”he had said.
On Sunday, three months after the Crocus City Hall bombing, Russia saw new attacks, this time in Dagestan, a volatile Muslim-majority region in the Caucasus, against Orthodox churches and at least one synagogue. Twenty people lost their lives.
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