At least 40 people are said to have died and more than 100 injured after masked gunmen opened fire at a concert venue in Moscow, causing a massive fire at the same time.
Videos circulating on social media show gruesome scenes from the sequence of events, while the building is being consumed by the flames.
Martin Kragh says you have to go back to the 2000s to find an equally serious crime in the country.
– What we have seen during the evening is one of the biggest terrorist acts that have taken place in Russia in recent years.
Several countries go on the defensive
Voices from the United States, Ukraine and Russia have spoken out, initially to free themselves from debt.
The White House states that there are no indications that Ukraine is involved, Zelensky’s advisers say that Ukraine has “absolutely nothing” to do with the act, as does the pro-Ukrainian Russian group “Freedom of Russia”.
Ukraine’s intelligence service accused Russia of planning the attack with the aim of “further escalating and expanding the war” in a post on Telegram.
Later in the evening, IS came out and claimed responsibility for the attack.
Russia has previously been accused of murder in the country
Martin Kragh mentions that Russia has previously been accused of being involved or even behind attacks in the country. But that there has never been sufficiently clear evidence.
– That may very well be the case this time, that we will get more information but without being able to draw precise conclusions about what has happened, he says, before IS claimed the deed.
Just over two weeks ago, the US embassy warned of an imminent terrorist attack in Moscow. According to the intelligence information, “extremists” planned attacks against large gatherings of people, concerts were mentioned as an example. The Swedish Foreign Ministry also drew attention to the warning.
– Even if someone from Washington said during the evening that “we don’t know any details”, there will of course be an interest in understanding what those warnings were based on. So far, we only have many questions and very few answers, says Martin Kragh.
Happens shortly after large-scale attack
It remains to be seen how Putin will act. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier in the evening that Russia will “find and destroy” high-ranking Ukrainians if it turns out they had a link to the attack.
– During the past 24 hours, we have seen the largest missile attacks against Ukraine in a long time, and it has also been indicated from the Russian side that they are planning an offensive in the near future. But we don’t know if these different things can be linked to each other, says Martin Kragh.