Russian state broadcasters prepared all night to broadcast Vladimir Putin’s speech about the terrorist attack in Moscow, but in the end missed it, sources at several television stations told the independent Russian publication The Insider.

Vladimir Putin during a televised address in February 2024Photo: Yuriy Kadobnov / AFP / Profimedia Images

“There was a signal to transmit the statement (of Vladimir Putin) three times and the transmission was canceled three times. The application is now being rewritten,” explained a Russian television source on Friday night.

Typically, Putin’s recorded message is centrally transmitted to television station servers for broadcast.

Instead of such a speech, in the end, the Kremlin briefly announced that Putin received information about the terrorist attack in real time and is still being informed about the progress of the investigation.

He also, through Deputy Prime Minister Tetiana Golikova, wished the victims of the terrorist attack a speedy recovery.

In the absence of Putin’s speech, writes The Insider, regional officials and Russian propagandists spent the whole night presenting their versions of the involvement of Ukrainian special services in the terrorist attack.

The Russian Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday that the suspects in Friday’s attack on a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow had “contacts” in Ukraine and were planning to flee there.

After committing the terrorist attack, the perpetrators planned to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side,” the FSB said, citing the TASS agency, after detaining the suspects in the Russian region on the border with Ukraine.

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack, and Ukraine denied involvement on Friday. The US confirmed the involvement of ISIS, saying it had informed Russia of the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Vladimir Putin rejected the US warning. As TASS reports, on Tuesday, March 19, three days before the terrorist attack, the Russian president said that the purpose of “the latest provocative statements by some Western official structures regarding the possibility of terrorist attacks in Russia” is to harm Russian society.

According to Russian authorities, at least 115 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, many of them in critical condition, after several gunmen attacked a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night.