Sébastien Le Belzic // Photo credits: STRINGER / AFP
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2:39 p.m., March 25, 2024
The four suspects arrested by Russian services after the terrorist attack in the suburbs of Moscow were presented before a judge on Sunday March 24. While at least three of these men are of Tajik origin, the Kremlin continues to accuse Ukraine of having organized this attack.
On Sunday, at the end of a day of national mourning in Russia, four suspected terrorists were presented to a judge. They have just spent their first night in pre-trial detention and are suspected of having participated in the attack which left at least 137 dead and 182 injured in the Moscow suburbs on Friday March 22.
These suspects were filmed with swollen faces in the courtroom. One of them is handcuffed, bent in half by police officers seated in a glass cage. The Russian media widely broadcast these images, for which the Kremlin refuted accusations of torture, and repeat the official story, that of Ukraine’s responsibility in this attack. In Russia, no one relayed the Islamic State claim video that circulated on social networks.
At least three suspects of Tajik origin
At this stage, intelligence indicates that at least three of the suspects are of Tajik nationality. Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, has a Muslim majority. It is also this country which is the main supplier of immigrant labor to Russia.
The Russian nation welcomes ten million nationals from Central Asian countries, some are even sent to fight in Ukraine. The alleged killers were in any case trying, according to the Kremlin, to reach Ukrainian territory. This Monday morning, the Russian regime remains obsessed with the war in Ukraine, which some say has left Russia vulnerable to real terrorist attacks on its soil. “As long as the investigation is ongoing” the Russian leader will stick to the Ukrainian trail, explained Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson. The master of the Kremlin will not go to the scene of the attack near Moscow either.