Last Monday, Russian officials arrested four men, all dressed similarly to the attackers shown in footage from the slaughter at a music venue outside of Moscow. The men are likely the terrorists who orchestrated the assault because they were all wearing clothes that matched the men in the footage. One of the detainees is seen in a video wearing a light-brown T-shirt with a recognizable logo on the left breast and pants branded with Boss. These features are identical to what a shooter wore in the propaganda clip of the attack published by the Islamic State, often known as ISIS.
On Sunday night, a court hearing in Moscow recognized Saidakrami M. Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, Muhammadsobir Z. Fayzov, and Dalerjon B. Mirzoyev as the four suspects in the attack that killed over 130 people. According to three defendants who testified in court, Tajikistan is their home. Two of the guys interrogated in films seen by The Times spoke Tajik. Two of the men showed up to court with apparent wounds, and the footage shows that several of the victims were abused while in custody. A leaked copy of the fourth suspect’s passport indicates that he is also a native of Tajikistan; he appeared in court in a wheelchair and seemed unable to reply.
Islamic State claimed credit, released images of what it said were the assailants, and released footage of the incident itself after U.S. officials indicated the group had carried it out. Putin did not single out the Islamic State when he said that “international terrorism” was to blame for the attack. Russian state media set the stage for accusing Ukraine, which vehemently denied any responsibility.
Senior scholar Rob Lee of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute said that the gunmen in the video did not look very trained, even though they carried out one of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Russia in decades. According to him, the attackers didn’t spread out and do more damage; instead, they appeared clustered together. Authorities would have an easier time tracking down and linking the perpetrators to the site if they changed into different clothing after the massacre and if they escaped in the same car that brought them there.
