Putin vows to find the masterminds of the Moscow concert hall attack and urges tighter security

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to track down the masterminds of the Moscow concert hall massacre that left 144 people dead. It was the worst attack on Russian soil in two decades. He urged the country’s law enforcement agencies to tighten security at mass gatherings. Putin has repeatedly sought to link the attack to Ukraine and the West, despite the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility and Kyiv’s vehement denial. The U.S. government also had warned Moscow days earlier of an imminent attack. Putin accused those behind the bloodshed of seeking to “sow discord and panic, strife and hatred in our multi-ethnic country in order to break up Russia from within.”