The Kremlin said on Saturday that President Vladimir Putin was still reeling from last week's massacre at a Moscow concert hall, even if it was not outwardly visible. More than a week after the tragedy, Putin has not publicly met with survivors or visited the site where it took place. This comes despite Russian media reports that Western diplomats, including those from the EU and the US, have visited a makeshift memorial for the victims.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state television reporter that Putin was dealing with the tragedy in his own way. "Trust me, if you don't see tears on his face, it doesn't mean he's not in pain. And what he's going through, hardly anyone will ever know and understand," he said.
The Kremlin gave no indication this week that the Russian leader planned to visit relatives of those killed in the attack, the country's deadliest in two decades. Instead, security agencies shifted focus to who was responsible, detaining a dozen suspects, including the four alleged attackers from Tajikistan. Islamic State jihadists have said several times since the attack last Friday that they were responsible, and IS-affiliated media outlets have released graphic videos of the gunmen in the hall. While Putin acknowledged that "radical Islamists" had carried out the carnage, he continued to claim that archenemy Ukraine was somehow involved, without providing any evidence. /BGNES, AFP
