The Kremlin gave no indication on Thursday that President Vladimir Putin plans to meet with the family members of those killed in Friday’s deadly attack at the Crocus City Hall music venue.
Putin was seen lighting a candle for the victims at a Moscow church last week but has otherwise not visited the scene of the massacre or met publicly with any survivors or relatives of those who were killed.
“If any contacts are necessary, we will inform you accordingly,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked if the Russian leader planned to meet with family members of the dead.
He added that Putin also did not plan to visit the Crocus City concert hall, the scene of the massacre where rescue workers continue to search beneath the rubble for bodies.
“In these days it would be completely inappropriate to carry out any fact-finding trips because this would simply interfere with [rescuers’] work,” Peskov said.
The Islamic State’s affiliate ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for last week’s attack, the deadliest in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege, and social media channels linked to the militant group have published graphic videos of the gunmen committing the mass killing at Crocus City Hall.
However, top Russian officials, including Putin himself, have suggested that Ukraine and the West were partly responsible for the mass killing, though they have yet to bring forward any concrete evidence to back up the claim.
The Kremlin has expressed confidence in the country’s security agencies, despite swirling questions over how they failed to thwart the massacre, which left at least 143 dead and 360 others wounded.