Putin changes narrative on Moscow concert hall attack as Russia arrests more suspects | ABC News

Three more suspects have been arrested over the terrorist attack at a concert in Moscow, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a meeting over Moscow's response to the attack. Let's get the latest from our Europe correspondent, Isabella Higgins. Isabella, good morning. So President Putin has been speaking in the past hour. What's he had to say? I understand he's continuing to shift the blame to Ukraine. Good morning, Emma. That's right. The Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken about this attack once again, this rampage that has really left the country reeling. It's been described as one of the worst terror attacks in the last 20 years. Now, interestingly, when we heard from President Putin this time, he has shifted his messaging. Previously, when he's been talking about this, there has been no mention of the Islamic State. But in this latest address, he described this attack as an act of intimidation carried out by radical Islamists. He continued to point the finger at Ukraine and say that he believed that the regime in Kyiv was still behind this. Now, this is despite the fact that many Western governments and leaders have said that their own intelligence suggests that it was the Islamic State, an entity of the Islamic State known as ISIS-K, that is behind this attack. Now, one of those leaders is the French President, Emmanuel Macron. Now, in his country, he has increased the terror threat level. There is an increased security presence in public places because they had received intelligence that ISIS-K was also planning an attack in France. Now, President Macron says that he finds the Kremlin's response not helpful at all and actually quite damaging. So let's take a listen to what President Macron has had to say. There is an ongoing war of aggression that we have condemned, that we oppose profoundly and that has led us to take sanctions against Russia and support Ukraine. I think it would be both cynical and counterproductive for Russia and the safety of its citizens to use this context and turn it against Ukraine. And the Australian envoy in Moscow has been summoned over a post about the election earlier this month. Tell us about that. That's right, Emma. So Russia's foreign ministry says that it has summoned one of Australia's representatives in Moscow. And this is all to do with the social media post that was put up a couple of weekends ago around the time of the Russian election. Now, that statement that was put out on one of the official Australian embassy sites on the messaging app Telegram, it said that voting that was going on in the illegally occupied areas of Ukraine during that Russian election violated international law. Now, that was a message that was reiterated by many leaders around the world here in the UK, in Washington, across Europe. So it's interesting that they are focusing on this post from Australia. And the Russian foreign ministry says that they are continuing to put pressure on the embassy to take that post down.