Global Majority Forces West to Change Rhetoric About Terrorist Attack in Russia - Moscow

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the West had initially intended not to condemn the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, but to limit itself to general phrases about regret and sympathy.

"The global majority has literally forced them [the West] to change their rhetoric, and even throughout yesterday evening and overnight, they were hastily rewriting their press releases. This morning, we even started to receive additional signals from Western countries that they will definitely strengthen their rhetoric [regarding the terrorist attack]," Zakharova said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

A shooting occurred on Friday evening in the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the city of Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, followed by a massive fire. A Sputnik correspondent who witnessed the attack reported that at least three men in camouflage had broken into the music hall, shooting people point-blank and throwing incendiary bombs.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the number of those killed in the terrorist attack had so far reached 133, according to the latest data, while Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group, said the death toll had reached 143 people.

Eleven people were detained in connection with the attack, including four who were directly responsible, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said. All four were detained in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, a few hours apart, the FSB added.