"Wanted to go to Belarus"

Moscow perpetrators: Lukashenko contradicts the Kremlin

(Bild: president.gov.by)

After the terrorist attack in Moscow, the Kremlin spread the unproven claim that the perpetrators had wanted to flee to Ukraine and were expected there. Putin's ally, the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, of all people, contradicted him. He explained that the perpetrators may have wanted to flee to Belarus.

When it became known after the attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that the perpetrators had driven a car into the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Belarus, security precautions were also taken on the side of the neighboring country, Lukashenko said on Tuesday, according to the state news agency Belta.

"Could not get to Belarus"
"They couldn't get to Belarus because of that. They saw that. That's why they turned around and drove towards the Ukrainian-Russian border." Bryansk borders both Belarus and Ukraine. Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has been claiming for days that the men had wanted to flee to Ukraine and were expected there.

Dictator Lukashenko spoke to media representatives on Tuesday.(Bild: president.gov.by)

FSB: Ukraine "involved"
The Russian regime continues to claim that Ukraine is behind the attack. The Ukrainian services were "directly involved", according to FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov. The attackers should have been greeted "as heroes" after the bloodbath in Ukraine, he claimed. The Kremlin did not provide any evidence of this, and the government in Kiev described the accusation as a lie.

An offshoot of the radical terrorist group IS - the IS province of Khorasan - has already claimed responsibility for the attack on several occasions, and on Monday Putin also declared that radical Islamists were behind the attack. However, the attack also fits in with Ukrainian attempts at intimidation, he said. In addition, Russian investigators are now looking into possible Western involvement in the attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall. At the request of MPs, a possible "organization, financing and execution of terrorist attacks" against Russia by the USA and other Western countries is being investigated, the investigative authority announced on Wednesday.

Death toll rises to 140
The death toll from the terrorist attack has now risen to 140. One injured person died in hospital, the health authorities in the Moscow region announced on Wednesday. "The doctors have done everything possible," said the head of the authority, Mikhail Murashko, according to the Tass agency. A further 80 victims of the attack were in hospitals in Moscow and the surrounding area, including six children. According to Murashko, the condition of four patients is very critical.