MOSCOW

Russia on Saturday unveiled a memorial dedicated to the victims of the deadly terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall in the Moscow region last year.

A memorial was inaugurated in front of the concert venue and the second pavilion of the Crocus Expo exhibition space near the capital, where the terrorist attack took place on March 22, 2024.

Ahead of the ceremony, the Russian Investigative Committee published a statement, claiming intelligence services of an "unfriendly state" orchestrated the attack to destabilize the situation in Russia.

"Based on the evidence gathered, the investigation concluded that the terrorist act was planned and organized by the special services of an unfriendly state in order to destabilize the situation in Russia. Members of an international terrorist organization were involved in its commission," the committee's spokeswoman Svetlana Petrova said without naming the country.

Last year, following the attack, head of the Russian Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov accused Ukraine of being behind the assault, saying Kyiv recruited members of the "West-sponsored" international terrorist group Islamic State – Khorasan Province to implement it.

The attack occurred in the Krasnogorsk city of the Moscow region when assailants stormed the concert hall, opening fire with automatic weapons before setting the auditorium ablaze. The tragedy claimed the lives of 145 people and injured more than 550 others.