Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has emphasized the necessity of relentlessly pursuing the perpetrators and masterminds behind the terrorist attack at a Moscow concert venue on Friday.
The assault, which claimed the lives of at least 133 individuals and left over 120 wounded, involved armed assailants opening fire inside the Crocus City Hall before setting the venue ablaze.
Medvedev, who presently serves as the deputy chair of the National Security Council, expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and offered words of encouragement to the loved ones of the injured in a Telegram post issued on Friday evening.
“Terrorists understand only terror in response. No trials or investigations will help if force is not countered with force, and deaths with executions of terrorists and a crackdown on their families,” he wrote, noting this was “the way of the world.”
“If these terrorists turn out to be the Kiev regime, we can’t deal with them and their ideological inspirers differently. All of them must be found and mercilessly destroyed as terrorists – including officials of the state that committed such an atrocity,” he added.
Medvedev’s statement echoed a sentiment expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 1999, during his tenure as a newly appointed prime minister, as he prepared to initiate a counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus region.
“We are going to pursue terrorists everywhere,” Putin said at the time. “If we find them in the toilet, then we will waste them in the outhouse.”
