RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the gunmen who killed 139 people at a suburban Moscow concert hall are “radical Islamists.”

But Mr Putin repeated his accusation that Ukraine could have played a role, despite Kiev’s strong denials.

Two days after the Islamic State’s (Isis) Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility for Friday night’s attack at the music venue, President Putin acknowledged during a meeting with government officials that the killings were carried out by extremists “whose ideology the Islamic world has been fighting for centuries.”