News: Crocus City Mall Terror Attack

The large shopping mall on Moscow's outskirts was targeted by Ukraine-bound Islamists

Edit 3/24/24: We’ve included the recent statements issued by Zelensky and the EU’s Charles Michel.

This is just a brief post to detail the situation (as it seems we’re the first in our little Substack ecosphere to post about yesterday’s tragedy) and to share a few official takes on what happened.

For those unaware, Crocus City, a large shopping mall with a concert hall in Krasnogorsk (Western Moscow) has been targeted by religiously Muslim and ethnically Tajik terrorists. The tragedy is already being described as Russia’s largest terror attack since the Beslan school siege in 2003. Many of the victims were attending a concert by the 1970s rock band "Piknik”. At least 93 people were killed, with a further 187 victims reported as injured.

Needless to say, the entire country is in a state of shock and still trying to make sense of it all. Before we go further, we strongly suspect that, as was the case following the Beslan school siege, the tragedy at Crocus will be followed by all manner of conspiracy theories and allegations, possibly not all without merit. With that in mind, this post is going to focus on relaying statements made by figures in the Russian world. We’ll make a follow-up post sometime in the near future with our own commentary on what happened. Let’s begin:

Dmitry Medevedev

The former Prime Minister issued the following statement earlier today:

The perpetrators and organizers of Friday’s terrorist attack at a Moscow concert venue must be hunted down without mercy. If these terrorists turn out to be the Kiev regime, we can’t deal with them and their ideological inspirers differently. All of them must be found and mercilessly destroyed as terrorists – including officials of the state that committed such an atrocity,

Sergey Mironov

The leader of the minor “A Just Russia - For Truth” faction made no light remarks:

“All those responsible will be severely punished. I am sure that terrorists deserve the death penalty!” He said. Who are they? I have no doubt about it. Just the other day, Kiev regime leaders declared their readiness to carry out attacks on our country,”

Vladimir Solovyov

One of Russia’s best-known TV personalities, Solovyov joined Mironov in calling for the perpetrators to be put to death, however he refrained from naming any suspects:

The bastards who organized this do not understand the main thing—they cannot intimidate us. Death awaits terrorists—both organizers and perpetrators, no matter where they are,

Every one of them.”

Alexander Lukashenko

The Belarusian press service released the following statement:

"On behalf of the Belarusian people and myself, I express my most sincere condolences in connection with the monstrous terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in the Moscow Region that led to civilian casualties,

I am convinced that all those who took part in planning and committing this act of violence will be identified and punished,

In this sad hour, I wish courage and fortitude to the families and friends of those killed over their irreparable loss, as well as a speedy recovery to all the injured,”

Notice how Lukashenko mentions the perpetrators “will be identified”? But haven’t they already been identified? Didn’t ISIS-K claim responsibility? It’s possible Lukashenko is alluding to the involvement of a 3rd-party. We wouldn’t be surprised.

Dmitry Peskov:

Peskov, as spokesman for the Kremlim, issued the following statement through the TASS news agency:

In the first minutes of the incident at the Crocus City Hall, the president was informed about the start of the shooting. The president is constantly supplied by all relevant services with information about what is happening and the measures being taken. The president has already given all the necessary instructions.

Charles Michel

The EU Council President had the following to say in the aftermath of the shooting:

the loss of innocent lives everywhere is a human tragedy.

Most EU officials have been silent on the issue, with statements generally being issued in the name of specific agencies and not on behalf of any specific individual.

Zelensky:

Ukraine’s election-free president posted the following to his Twitter account yesterday:

Russian air strikes this morning were heinous, with the deliberate goal of causing structural damage to society’s life rather than military damage to our ability to defend ourselves. This is terror, by definition, without any disgui—

Seriously? Yes. Zelensky is seriously ignoring the incident entirely and instead (hypocritically) complaining about the recent Russian strikes on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. To be fair, Zelensky’s aid Mykhailo Podolyak did give this brief statement to reporters:

“Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall.

“It makes no sense whatsoever. Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods.”

Never resorted to the use of terrorist methods? We would beg to differ.

Edit: Zelensky did issue a statement on Telegram later on in the day, although he was very much on the defensive:

"What happened yesterday in Moscow is obviously just Putin and the other scum trying to blame it on someone else.

They always have the same methods. It has happened before. There have been bombed houses, shootings, and explosions. And they always blame others."

He’s suggesting the Kremlin is responsible for what happened. So far, he’s the only head of state to do this. Maybe he’s trying to appease the diehard Russophobes who support him? It’s also possible this narrative will later be picked up by the west.

At least Kiev isn’t putting on a show of sympathy like many other states are.

To finish up, here are a few photos from the scene:

A member of the Rosgvardiya on duty. (source - Maxim Shemetov)

Firefighters at work. (source - Maxim Shemetov)

Police block the road to Crocus City. (source - Maxim Shemetov)

The burning Crocus City Hall following the shooting. (source - Maxim Shemetov)

Not a pretty picture by any means. It’s also worthwhile to point out that the entire shopping complex was built by and named after the Crocus Group, owned by the Azerbaijani-born “businessman” Aras Agalarov. This may be an interesting detail as the situation evolves.

Situations like this are trials. They have the ability to bring out the best and the worst in nations. Russia has gone through many such trials, and doubtless will go through many more in the future. What matters now is, how Russia as a nation responds to what happened. In coming days, this response will become clearer. And when it does, we’ll be here posting about it - Because it matters to us.