Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested three more people in connection with the terrorist attack on the Crocus concert hall in Moscow on March 22.
According to the intelligence service, the arrests were made in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Omsk. Two of the arrested allegedly transferred the money to buy weapons and a car for the attackers. The third person is suspected of being involved in recruiting accomplices and financing the suspected attackers.
The arrested are from Central Asia. One of them has Russian citizenship.
Ten people have been arrested in connection with the terrorist attack, including the four suspected attackers, and most of them are citizens of Tajikistan.
Russian authorities believe Ukraine may have been involved in the attack on the concert hall, but Kiev has categorically denied the allegation.
The terrorist group, Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The United States and other Western countries believe this group is responsible.
Meanwhile, during a speech at the Independent Trade Union of Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that those who ordered the attack intended to “damage the unity” of Russians. /REL
“Two of those detained transferred money for the purchase of firearms and vehicles used in the terror attack, and a third was directly involved in recruiting accomplices of the terror attack and financing its perpetrators,” the Interfax news agency quoted the FSB as saying in a statement.
State media published footage showing FSB agents making the arrests.
Two were foreign citizens and one was Russian, the FSB said.
Russia has arrested more than a dozen people it said were involved in the attack, including the four gunmen, all citizens of Tajikistan.
The IS group has claimed responsibility for the attack on multiple occasions, but Moscow has repeatedly tried to say it was “ordered” by Kyiv or the West.
“We have every reason to believe that the main goal of those who ordered the bloody, horrific terror attack in Moscow was to inflict damage on our unity,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
He said “Islamic fundamentalists” had no reason to target Russia.
Ukraine and Western leaders have repeatedly denied any connection to the attack and said Moscow is trying to exploit the tragedy.
