Kremlin says Putin was pained by Moscow attack, even if it was invisible

Dmitry Peskov said Putin was dealing with the tragedy in his own way. (document)

Moscow, Russia:

The Kremlin said on Saturday that President Vladimir Putin was still pained by last week’s massacre at a Moscow concert hall, although this was not apparent from the outside.

More than a week after gunmen stormed the city hall in Krokos, a suburb of the capital, killing 144 people and injuring hundreds, Putin has yet to publicly meet with survivors or visit the site of the attack.

This was despite Russian media reports that Western diplomats, including from the European Union and the United States, visited a makeshift memorial to victims outside the venue on Saturday.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporters that Putin was dealing with the tragedy in his own way.

“Believe me, if you don’t see the tears on his face, it doesn’t mean he’s not in pain. It’s unlikely that anyone will recognize and understand what he’s going through,” he said.

The Kremlin gave no indication this week that Russia’s leaders planned to visit relatives of those killed in the attack, the country’s worst attack in two decades.

Instead, security agencies have turned their focus on those responsible, detaining more than a dozen suspects, including four attackers from Tajikistan.

Since Friday’s attack, jihadists from the Islamic State group have repeatedly claimed responsibility, and Islamic State-affiliated media channels have released video of the gunman inside the venue.

While Putin acknowledged that “radical Islamists” carried out the massacre, he continued to claim that arch-enemy Ukraine was somehow involved without providing any evidence.

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