Russian President Asks Prosecutor's Office to Punish Terrorists

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the Prosecutor's Office to impose “just punishment” on the terrorists who carried out the attack on the Crocus City concert hall, where 139 people died on Friday.

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“I trust that prosecutors within the framework of their powers, including when presenting state charges during the judicial process, will do everything necessary so that criminals receive fair punishment as required by Russian legislation,” he said.

“Children, teenagers, and women died as a result of the bloody attack in the Moscow region,” the Russian leader emphasized, adding that “investigators are scrupulously establishing the circumstances surrounding this barbaric crime.”

On Monday, Putin said that the deadly attack was carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS), but many questions still remain.

"We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries… Now we are interested in who ordered the crime," he said, adding that the United States is trying to convince everyone that there is supposedly no Ukrainian trace in the bloody attack.

"It is necessary to obtain answers to a number of questions, for example, are radical, even terrorist, Islamic organizations really interested in striking Russia, which today stands for a fair solution to the escalating Middle East conflict," Putin stated.

The Russian leader also noted that it is necessary to answer the question of why the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine after the attack, and who was waiting for them there. Calling the attack an act of intimidation, Putin said, "the question arises who benefits from this."

The investigation into the terrorist attack should be carried out to the highest degree professionally, objectively and without political bias, despite the general desire to punish the perpetrators, Putin added.

Meanwhile, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexandr Bortnikov, accused Ukraine of having participated directly and the West of being involved in the terrorist attack committed on Friday.

"We consider that the act was prepared by radical Islamists and, naturally, Western secret services contributed to it," Bortnikov said, adding that Ukrainian intelligence services had a direct relationship with the attack.