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Announcing: The Individual Trip Program

Joe hanauer, november 18, 2021.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Grueninger players in my past year of hosting trips – it’s that while we all love to have a good time on the trip we’re on, we’re also thinking ahead to the next casino and destination on the radar.

Many of the Grueninger players I speak with on trips have at least one, two and sometimes three trips planned in advance. While many of those trips are with us on charters or VIP trips, just as commonly, guests are planning their own individual trips – and are surprised to hear that they could have called Grueninger Travel and booked their individual trip through us.

Our Charter Program and VIP Program strive to offer continuous departures from our most popular cities to the casinos you know and love. For everything that’s in between, or not on our schedule – we’re pleased to offer the Individual Trip Program.

The goal of the Individual Trip Program is to offer you the top-notch customer service experience we provide all of our guests, for casino trips you’d like to plan outside of one of our Charter or VIP experiences. Just give us a call and we’re happy to assist you with your room reservations. Our team receives credit when you book the reservation through us, and we appreciate your support.

Below are the most commonly asked questions we answer about booking Individual Trips with Grueninger.

Why should I book my Individual Trips with Grueninger?

At its simplest, you get the customer service of our team, with all the perks of the offers and rewards you receive directly. It also allows us to keep your play up to date, so you can continue receiving future trip offers from Grueninger.

I have comp’d room offers. Can I use those with you?

Yes – we can redeem your comp offers! Give us a call and we’d be happy to redeem them for you.

Can I redeem an offer I received from the casino?

Yes – We can price-match and offer-match anything you receive directly from the casino. We most commonly help players redeem FreePlay, Airfare, Diamond Elite and Seven Star offers and more!

Where can I book my Individual Trips?

Caesars and El Dorado properties – We can book you to any Caesars property and any El Dorado property. With the completion of the recent merger, we now have access to book with the largest casino group in the world.

MGM properties – We can book you at theBeau Rivage and Gold Strike resorts in Gulf Coast

Penn Gaming – We can book you at any Penn property. Their most popular properties include the Ameristar in Black Hawk,Colorado, various Hollywood resorts and the L’Auberge resorts in Baton Rouge.

Boyd Gaming – We can book you at any BoydGaming property as well. Their popular destination properties include the IPCasino in Biloxi, and the Ameristar casinos we commonly visit in Kansas City and St. Charles.

Cruise lines – We can book your cruise onNorwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, and more.

How can I book my Individual Trips?

We offer two easy ways to get started with booking your Individual Trip.

Call us directly 260-969-5626 and ask for Lisa, or fill out our Individual Trip Form on our website and let us know a good time to reach out to you.

Are there any additional fees to book a room at a casino?

There’s no additional charge to book your reservation with us at the casino you intend to travel to.

Can you help book my airfare?

Absolutely. For qualified players, we’ll waive our $30 per person service fee. As a general rule of thumb - if the primary purpose of your trip is to gamble, we’ll go ahead and waive the fees.  

I already have a host at the property who says they can book me. Can you do what my host does?

Yes! Whether it be suite requests, limo requests, food and beverage credits, or anything else, we can match what your host offers, with the added value of the customer support we provide to all of our players. We’ll give you access to the hosts on property we work with, and can put you in contact to make sure your next trip is the best one yet.

What’s the cancellation policy?

We match the casinos and respective airlines for all cancellation policies. Generally speaking, most casinos allow you to cancel your reservation up until 24 hours prior to arrival.

What if I take someone who doesn’t gamble?

Not a problem at all! We’re happy to help and support our loyal players.

Can I use my Tier Credits to pay for the trip (or respective loyalty program)?

Yes – If your room is not comp’d, you may use your loyalty program points to pay for your folio at the time of check-out. If you'd prefer to pay with cash or card, that's fine as well. 

Where can I find out more? 

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Get started on your next trip today! Contact us for any questions you may have, and we’d be happy to help.

Click to go to the new individual trip program page of our website, join our mailing list, call and book your next trip today.

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Trips to the Beau Rivage

Starting at $50 per person, (.. and you'll get $50 back in freeplay), i'm joe, your independent casino host, why book through our team at casino gold tours.

  • We provide the same pricing as the Beau Rivage, and can redeem offers you receive directly
  • We have booking agents ready to talk on the phone with you
  • We're ready to be your agent, and advocate for you to maximize your comps, get free trip offers, and more

The Beau Rivage Charter Program

All charter packages include the following:.

  • Round-trip airfare
  • No Baggage Fees
  • Complimentary Airport Transportation
  • No Resort Fee
  • Complimentary In-flight beverage
  • Private Charter Aircraft

How it works

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1. Find a trip

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2. Submit a request

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3. We'll follow up

Frequently asked questions, what's the cost, what's the cancellation policy, do you take trips anywhere else, will i get any freeplay, i received an offer from mgm. can i book with you, can i upgrade my flight seating, where do we fly into, beau rivage free play schedule dates, upcoming trips to the beau rivage, search by departure city or destination, show me trips departing from....

Our office is open by appointment only. Please call us to set up an appointment.

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Join our Leisure Travel mailing list

Call (260) 482-8251 to book today.

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10 casinos that RULED Moscow

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1. Metelitsa

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This casino opened on New Arbat Street in June 1993 and quickly became the most iconic gambling and entertainment establishment in the Russian capital

At the time of its opening, the Metelitsa club — and the Cherry Casino that the club hosted — lacked the chic and only gradually acquired it by the end of the 1990s.

It looked rather gloomy at the beginning.

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Later, it became one of the most flashy and spectacular places in the city. 

The stage at the Metelitsa became a holy grail for aspiring and established pop artists all over Russia, as staging a show there often brought them fame and money, as the Metelitsa’s guests were mostly well-connected people who squandered their fortunes without a second thought.

“Metelitsa was very famous. It helped [many people] to make useful connections in Moscow. All pop stars that you see today […] have passed through the Metelitsa. They called me directly and asked if they could perform there, [because] there was real money, a huge number of people, from 600 to 700 gathered inside every evening,” said ex-cofounder of the casino David Yakobashvili.

Natalia Petrovskaya at a beauty pageant in Metelitsa, 1994.

Natalia Petrovskaya at a beauty pageant in Metelitsa, 1994.

Nonetheless, the history of the casino has been marked with plenty of scandals, too. One day in June 1994, the casino was raided by a special police force and later guests recalled that the officers left the casino with the cash they had confiscated after they had searched the guests.

When the iconic place was closed, tourists gathered at its doors for the last chance to take photographs in front of the casino Russians of the 1990s admired the most.

2. Beverly Hills

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In August 1993, a new casino opened in one of the 7 Stalin skyscrapers in Moscow . It was called ‘The Firebird’, but only three years later, in 1996, The Firebird ceased to exist and was replaced by a newly opened casino named ‘Beverly Hills’.

The opening party was lavish and the list of attendees was impressive. Donald Trump, Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and movie star Chuck Norris, who reportedly owned a 50% share in the casino, all attended the grand opening.

Chuck Norris in Moscow.

Chuck Norris in Moscow.

Contemporaries remembered the Beverly Hills casino as one of the most criminalized and dangerous gambling venues in town.

August 27, 1997. An erotic dance at the Miss Hawaiian Tropic contest show finals in Beverly Hills club.

August 27, 1997. An erotic dance at the Miss Hawaiian Tropic contest show finals in Beverly Hills club.

“The Beverly Hills casino owned by Chuck Norris is said to be a very thuggish place. And this, of course, is true. I mean, I don’t know for sure if those who come to the establishment of their favorite Texas Ranger are indeed thugs, but they do look exactly like most of the soulless oppressors of the Indians that Chuck Norris kicks in the face in every episode of his show,” wrote a journalist in 1998 about the casino.

3. Golden Palace

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The Golden Palace casino opened in 1994 in an area close to the Belorussky Railway Station. Just like Metelitsa, this casino also attracted pop artists and gamblers of the capital. One of them got lucky in 1996 and won $240,000, which was an absolute record in Moscow at the time. 

The Golden Palace casino in 1998.

The Golden Palace casino in 1998.

Yet, the history of the Golden Palace was scattered with scandals. In December 1996, co-founder and owner of the casino David Khachatrov was gunned down next to his house by a hitman. In 2006, the authorities discovered certain violations in the work of the casino and stopped all activity inside. Although the Golden Palace opened again soon after, it was permanently closed in June 2009, when gambling was outlawed in Russia everywhere, except for a few special zones. 

Today, passers-by can still notice the Golden Palace signboard in the area. The casino, however, is no longer there. It has been transformed into an entertainment club. 

4. Shangri-La

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British citizen Michael Boettcher founded gambling business operator Storm International in 1992 and came to the emerging Russian gambling market later in the 1990s. One of his casinos — Shangri-La — opened in 1999. It was an elitist establishment that charged an entry fee of $200 per person. 

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Only a certain kind of Russian people could afford such an astonishing entrance fee. However, leaders of the Russian criminal underworld could. Once, a member of one organized criminal group named Vyacheslav Kazarin lost money playing against members of a different crime syndicate. Unwilling to pay the debt, Kazarin invited them to his apartment and killed the unsuspecting victors.

Today, cafes and a theater have replaced the casino which was closed in the summer of 2009.

5. Jazz Town

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Just like Shangri-La, this casino belonged to Michael Boettcher’s Storm International, but unlike the former, it opened only in 2004. The casino aspired to become the main jazz venue in Moscow, but it was closed in 2009, along with all the other gambling rooms.

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At the time of its opening in 1997, the Crystal casino was the largest gambling venue in Eastern Europe. 

“There are different categories of players. The first group consists of professionals... For such people it is enough to win $200-300 a day. The second group includes so-called ‘big players’, who bet at least $10 thousand during a game. The third group consists of cheaters and police is after them,” said one of the dealers who worked at the casino.

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In March 1999, police detained infamous thief-in-law Shakro the Young after he had gambled and allegedly used drugs in the casino.

The authorities suspected that the Georgian mafia controlled the casino and the venue was raided and temporality closed in 2006, before it was completely shut down in 2009. 

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The Empire casino opened in 2001 and was operated by an American company. Women were admitted for free and men were charged a $50 entry fee.

The main feature of the casino was its signature striptease shows dubbed ‘Imperial Evenings’. Essentially, it was a striptease show, themed according to the aesthetics of all the world empires that have ever existed.

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The Cosmos casino operated on the first floor of the famous Cosmos Hotel next to the VDNKh park. Many times, the casino became the object of interest to Russian law enforcement: either because it was suspected in money laundering , providing a meeting venue for criminal bosses , or operating without licenses.

Musician Andrei Makarevich in the Cosmos casino.

Musician Andrei Makarevich in the Cosmos casino.

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The Crown casino was also located on New Arbat Street that had already been a popular place among gamblers of Moscow because of the Metelitsa casino.

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The Crown had a poker club and a gambling area and was considered a more democratic place, compared to the very expensive clubs of the capital.

10. Metropol

The Metropol Hotel in central Moscow.

The Metropol Hotel in central Moscow.

This was the closest casino to the Red Square, as it was located in the iconic Metropol Hotel. In 2006, the casino raffled 20 kilos of gold among its VIP guests.

A hall for VIP guests in the Metropol casino.

A hall for VIP guests in the Metropol casino.

Later, one of its guests hit a $2 million jackpot, a prize that dwarfed the previous record set by the Golden Palace casino in 1996.

Click here to see a currently operating casino in Sochi and 9 other striking sites on the Russian Riviera.

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THE BEST Moscow Casinos & Gambling Attractions

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1. Central Moscow Hippodrome

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Security Questions Emerge as First Charges Are Filed in Russia Attack

Russian officials formally charged four men in the attack, which killed at least 137 people at a Moscow-area concert hall on Friday. American officials blamed a branch of the Islamic State.

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  • A memorial outside the Crocus City Hall concert venue. Reuters
  • People waiting to visit a memorial at Crocus City Hall. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
  • Leaving flowers outside the site of the attack. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
  • Mourners at a memorial in St. Petersburg, Russia. Anton Vaganov/Reuters
  • Firefighters and rescuers clearing debris after the deadly attack. Reuters
  • Police officers outside the Basmanny District Court in Moscow. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press
  • People waited to donate blood near Crocus City Hall on Saturday. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
  • A flag flying at half-staff as policemen guard the closed entrance to Red Square in Moscow. Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA, via Shutterstock
  • A billboard on Saturday noted the date of the concert hall attack in Moscow. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
  • The Crocus City Hall concert venue in suburban Moscow after it was attacked Friday night. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

Paul Sonne

Paul Sonne and Neil MacFarquhar

Here’s what to know about the attack.

Russian officials have brought charges against four men they said were responsible for a fiery terrorist attack on a suburban Moscow concert venue that killed at least 137 people last week.

Four men were arraigned late Sunday night on terrorism charges in the attack at Crocus City Hall, just outside the Russian capital. A court spokesman identified them as Dalerjon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Fayzov, a 19-year-old who appeared in court in a wheelchair, according to Russian media outlets.

Mr. Mirzoyev, Mr. Rachabalizoda and Mr. Fariduni told the court they were from Tajikistan, and Russian media outlets reported that Mr. Fayzov was also from the Central Asian nation. All four had visible injuries; Mr. Rachabalizoda’s head was heavily bandaged and Mr. Fayzov had to be wheeled in and out of the courtroom.

Earlier Sunday — which had been declared a national day of mourning — people visited the scene of the attack to lay flowers and light candles at a memorial. Scores of people waited in a long line under a gray sky, many clutching red bouquets, as efforts were underway inside to dismantle the remains of the stage. Flags were lowered to half-staff at buildings across the country, and state media released a video of President Vladimir V. Putin lighting a memorial candle in a church.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, a top law-enforcement body, said on Sunday that 137 bodies had been recovered from the charred premises, including those of three children. It said that 62 victims had been identified so far and that genetic testing was underway to identify the rest.

There are two primary narratives about the violence on Friday night, Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years . American officials say it was the work of Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, an Islamic State offshoot that has been active in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran . But on Saturday, Mr. Putin did not mention ISIS in his first public remarks on the tragedy , and hinted at the possible involvement of Ukraine, which has issued a strong denial .

Here’s what to know:

The search for survivors ended on Saturday, as details about the victims began to emerge . Many of the more than 100 people wounded in the attack were in critical condition. The search for bodies continues.

As Russia mourned, the war in Ukraine continued. Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 43 out of 57 Russian missiles and drones launched overnight against different parts of the country. And Ukraine’s military said it had struck two large landing ships that were part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. There was no immediate comment from Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Piknik, the Russian rock band that was to play a sold-out concert at the suburban venue on the night it was attacked and burned to rubble, now finds itself at the center of the tragedy .

The attack dealt a political blow to Mr. Putin , a leader for whom national security is paramount.

Neil MacFarquhar

Russia charges four people with terrorism after attack on concert hall.

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The four men suspected of carrying out a bloody attack on a concert hall near Moscow, killing at least 137 people, were arraigned in a district court late Sunday and charged with committing a terrorist act.

The four, who were from Tajikistan but worked as migrant laborers in Russia, were remanded in custody until May 22, according to state and independent media outlets reporting from the proceedings, at Basmanny District Court. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The press service of the court only announced that the first two defendants, Dalerjon B. Mirzoyev and Saidakrami M. Rachalbalizoda, pleaded guilty to the charges. It did not specify any plea from the other two, Mediazona, an independent news outlet, reported.

The men looked severely battered and injured as each of them was brought into the courtroom separately. Videos of them being tortured and beaten while under interrogation circulated widely on Russian social media.

Muhammadsobir Z. Fayzov, a 19-year-old barber and the youngest of the men charged, was rolled into the courtroom from a hospital emergency room on a tall, orange wheelchair, attended by a doctor, the reports said. He sat propped up in the wheelchair inside the glass cage for defendants, wearing a catheter and an open hospital gown with his chest partially exposed. Often speaking in Tajik through a translator, he answered questions about his biography quietly and stammered, according to Mediazona.

Mr. Rachabalizoda, 30, had a large bandage hanging off the right side of his head where interrogators had sliced off a part of his ear and forced it into his mouth, the reports said, with the cutting captured in a video that spread online.

The judge allowed the press to witness only parts of the hearings, citing concerns that sensitive details about the investigation might be revealed or the lives of court workers put at risk. It is not an unusual ruling in Russia.

Russia’s Federal Security Services announced on Saturday that 11 people had been detained, including the four charged men, who were arrested after the car they were fleeing in was intercepted by the authorities 230 miles southwest of Moscow.

In the attack, on Friday night, four gunmen opened fire inside the hall just as a rock concert by the group Piknik was due to start. They also set off explosive devices that ignited the building and eventually caused its roof to collapse. Aside from the dead, there were 182 injured, and more than 100 remain hospitalized, according to the regional health ministry.

President Vladimir V. Putin used the fact that the highway where the men were detained leads to Ukraine to suggest that the attack was somehow linked to Ukraine’s war effort. But the United States has said repeatedly that the attack was the work of an extremist jihadi organization, the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility.

The first charged, Mr. Mirzoyev, who had a black eye and cuts and bruises all over his face, leaned for support against the glass wall of the court cage as the charge against him was read. Mr. Mirzoyev, 32, has four children and had a temporary residence permit in the southern Siberian city of Novosibirsk, but it had expired, the reports said.

Mr. Rachabalizoda, married with a child, said he was legally registered in Russia but did not remember where.

The fourth man charged, Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, married with an 8-month-old baby, worked in a factory producing parquet in the Russian city of Podolsk, just southwest of Moscow. He had also worked as a handyman in Krasnogorsk, the Moscow suburb where the attack took place at Crocus City Hall, at a concert venue within a sprawling shopping complex just outside the Moscow city limits.

The Islamic State has been able to recruit hundreds of adherents among migrant laborers from Central Asia in Russia who are often angry about the discrimination they frequently face.

Alina Lobzina , Paul Sonne and Milana Mazaeva contributed reporting.

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Maps and Diagrams of the Moscow Concert Hall Attack

The mass shooting and arson at a suburban Moscow concert venue, which killed more than 130, were attributed by U.S. officials to members of a branch of the Islamic State.

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The other two men charged in the attack are Shamsidin Fariduni, 26, and 19-year-old Muhammadsobir Fayzov, who appeared in court in a wheelchair. All four men who've been charged have been identified by a court spokesman on Telegram. They appeared separately before a judge on charges of committing a terrorist act and were remanded in custody until May 22.

Russian authorities have begun naming the suspects in the attack. The first two suspects have been identified as Dalerjon Mirzoyev and Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, which is reporting from the court. Both have been charged with committing a terrorist act and face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

RIA reported that Mirzoyev is a 32-year-old from Tajikistan who had an expired three-month permit to be in the southern Russian city of Novosibirsk. Less information was immediately released about Rachabalizoda, but state media reports said he was born in 1994.

Valerie Hopkins

Valerie Hopkins and Alina Lobzina

Concertgoers describe screams, smoke and stares of shock in a night of horror.

Once they heard the shots ring out on Friday night at Crocus City Hall, Efim Fidrya and his wife ran down to the building’s basement and hid with three others in a bathroom.

They listened as the gunfire began and thousands of people who had come to a sold-out rock concert on Moscow’s outskirts began screaming and trying to flee.

Horrified and scared, Mr. Fidrya did the only thing he could think to do: He held on tight to the bathroom door, which didn’t lock, trying to protect the group in case the assailants came to find them.

“While we could hear shooting and screaming, I stood the whole time holding the bathroom door shut,” Mr. Fidrya, an academic, said in a phone interview from Moscow. “The others were standing in the corner so that if someone started shooting through the door, they wouldn’t be in the line of fire.”

They didn’t know it then, but they were sheltering from what became Russia’s deadliest terror attack in two decades, after four gunmen had entered the popular concert venue and began shooting rapid-fire weapons.

Their story is one of many harrowing accounts that have emerged in the days since the attack, which killed at least 137 people. More than 100 injured people are hospitalized, some in critical condition, health officials said.

Mr. Fidrya’s small group waited and waited, but the attackers had started a fire in the complex and it was spreading. Mr. Fidrya’s wife, Olga, showed everyone how to wet their T-shirts and hold them to their faces so they could breathe without inhaling toxic smoke.

And then a second round of shots rang out.

After about half an hour, it was so smoky that Mr. Fidrya, 42, thought even the assailants must have left. As he ventured out, he saw the body of a dead woman lying by the escalator. Later he saw the body of another woman who had been killed in the carnage, her distraught husband standing over her.

His group went down into the parking garage and eventually emerged on the street as the emergency service workers were carrying victims from the building.

The Islamic State, through its news agency, claimed responsibility for the attack. U.S. officials said the assailants were believed to be part of ISIS-K, an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan. On Saturday, Russia’s Federal Security Services announced that 11 people had been detained, including four who were arrested after the car they were fleeing in was intercepted by authorities 230 miles southwest of Moscow.

In interviews, survivors described how what started as a typical Friday night out devolved into a scene of panic and terror. The venue, which seated 6,200 people, had been sold out for a show by a veteran Russian band called Piknik.

Video footage from the scene shows the assailants shooting at the entrance to the concert venue, part of a sprawling, upscale complex of buildings that also includes a shopping mall and multiple exhibition halls. They then moved into the concert hall, where they sprayed gunfire as well, videos show.

The attackers also set the building on fire using a combination of explosives and flammable liquid, Russian authorities said.

Like the Fidryas, Tatyana Farafontova initially thought the sound of the shooting was part of the show.

“Five minutes before the show was supposed to start, we heard these dull claps,” she wrote on her VK social media page. Ms. Farafontova, 38, said in a direct message on Saturday that she was still in shock and was slurring her speech after the attack.

Then the claps got closer and someone shouted that there were attackers shooting. She scrambled onto the stage with the assistance of her husband.

“At the moment when we climbed onto the stage, three people entered the hall with machine guns,” she wrote in her VK account. “They shot at everything that moved. My husband from the stage saw bluish smoke filling the hall.”

Ms. Farafontova said that being on the center of the stage made her feel exposed and targeted.

“It felt as if they were poking me in the back with the muzzle of a machine gun,” she wrote, adding, “I could feel the breath of death right behind my shoulders.”

She crawled under the curtain and eventually followed the musicians, who had already started to flee, and ran as far as she could from the building.

Up on the balcony, Aleksandr Pyankov and his wife, Anna, heard the gunshots and lay on the floor for some time before joining others who jumped up and began running to the exit.

As they fled, they encountered a woman who had slumped down on an escalator and was blocking their route. She was alive but staring blankly ahead, Mr. Pyankov, a publishing executive, said. He told her to keep running, but then turned his head and saw what she was staring at.

“I started to look,” Mr. Pyankov, 51, said in a telephone interview. “And first I saw a murdered woman sitting on the sofa, and there was a young man lying next to her. I looked around and there were groups of bodies.”

It all happened in a matter of seconds, he said, and he tried to keep fleeing.

“The worst thing is that in this situation you’re not running away from the shooting, but toward it,” he said. “Because it was already clear that there would be a fire there, we know how it would burn. And you’re just running to figure out where else to run.”

Anastasiya Volkova lost both her parents in the attack. She told 5 TV, a state channel, that she had missed a call from her mother on Friday night at around the time of the assault. When she called back, there was no response, Ms. Volkova said.

“I couldn’t answer the phone. I didn’t hear the call,” Ms. Volkova told the broadcaster, adding that her mother had been “really looking forward to this concert.”

Accounts emerging about others who died in the assault also told tales of eager concertgoers who had made special efforts to get to the show.

Irina Okisheva and her husband, Pavel Okishev, traveled hundreds of miles — making their way from Kirov, northeast of Moscow. Mr. Okishev had received the tickets as an early birthday present, the newspaper Komsomolsaya Pravda reported. He did not live to celebrate his 35th birthday, which is this week. Both he and his wife died in the attack.

And Alexander Baklemyshev, 51, had long dreamed about seeing Piknik , a heritage rock band that was playing the first of two sold-out concerts accompanied by a symphony orchestra.

Mr. Baklemyshev’s son told local media that his father had traveled solo from his hometown of Satka, some 1,000 miles east of Moscow, for the concert.

His son, Maksim, told the Russian news outlet MSK1 that his father had sent him a video of the concert hall before the attack. That was the last he had heard from him.

“There was no last conversation,” his son said. “All that was left is the video, and nothing more.”

Mr. Fidrya said he felt grateful to be alive, and that four of the assailants had been captured.

“Now there is confidence that the crime will be solved and those non-humans who organized and carried it out will be punished,” he said. “This really helps a lot.”

But images of the victims remain seared in his memory, in particular that of the husband, his back burned from the fire, standing over his dead wife outside the building as medics attended to the wounded.

The man was talking to Mr. Fidrya’s wife, Olga, saying they were from the city of Tver northwest of Moscow, had been together for 12 years and had three children.

“For us it’s all over, by and large,” Mr. Fidrya wrote in a message after the phone interview. “But for that guy who stood over the body of his wife, and for their three children, the worst is yet to come. And there are so many people like him there.”

Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, a top law enforcement agency, released video of suspects being led, blindfolded, into its headquarters on Sunday. The agency said the investigation at the scene of the attack was continuing.

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Ivan Nechepurenko

As questions about security failures swirl, Russian state media focus on a different narrative.

As Russia mourned the victims of the worst terrorist attack in the Moscow area in more than two decades on Sunday, differing narratives about the attack were spreading and taking hold in the country.

The attack late Friday on a concert hall near Moscow left at least 137 people dead and represented a significant security failure for the Kremlin. While the Russian authorities said they had arrested the four attackers, speculation over their identities and motivations was widespread. There also were open questions about whether Russia had adequately followed up on a warning from the United States about the threat of such an attack, and about how specific that warning was.

But most Russian commentators and state media devoted little time to those issues, instead pointing fingers elsewhere. The reaction reflected in part the state of anxiety that Russia has been living in since the start of the war in Ukraine, with propaganda outlets competing to advance one narrative, conspiracy theory or bit of speculation after another.

Many nationalist commentators and ultraconservative hawks on Sunday continued to push the idea that Ukraine was the obvious culprit, despite a claim of responsibility and mounting evidence that a branch of the Islamic State was responsible.

Hard-line anti-Kremlin activists speaking from abroad, meanwhile, speculated that the Russian state could have orchestrated the attack so that it could blame Ukraine or further tighten the screws inside the country.

Some lawmakers in Parliament argued that the government needed to get tough on migrants, after the authorities said that the four assailants were foreign citizens. Lawmakers also pledged to discuss whether capital punishment should be introduced in Russia.

“Different political forces are starting to use” the attack, said Aleksei Venediktov, a Russian journalist and commentator and the former editor of the influential Ekho Moskvy radio station. “The Kremlin, most of all,” he said in an interview broadcast on YouTube. “But others too, who say that it was all organized by the Kremlin.”

Some nationalist activists said that such a sense of disorientation could have been the attackers’ ultimate goal.

Yegor S. Kholmogorov, a Russian nationalist commentator, wrote in his blog on the Telegram messaging app that Russian society was “strongly united by the war and President Vladimir V. Putin’s victory in the election” before the attack.

But after the tragedy, he lamented on Sunday, Russia had turned into a “society that is split.”

Mr. Putin has done little to clear things up. On Saturday, he vowed to inflict “fair and inevitable” punishment on both the terrorists and the unknown forces behind them. Mr. Putin hinted that Ukraine was tied to the tragedy but stopped short of directly laying blame.

But many of Mr. Putin’s subordinates and public supporters appeared to have made up their minds about who was responsible.

Sergei A. Markov, a pro-Kremlin analyst who often appears on Russian state television, wrote in a post on Telegram that Russia must work at isolating the Ukrainian leadership by “connecting the terrorist act not with ISIS, but with the Ukrainian government as much as possible.”

Russian state news outlets barely mentioned the claim of responsibility made by ISIS. United States officials have said the atrocity was the work of Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, an offshoot of the group that has been active in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

Maria V. Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday that the West was pointing at ISIS in order to shift the blame away from Ukraine.

Russia has not presented any evidence of Ukraine’s involvement in the attack. Ukrainian officials have ridiculed the Russian accusations, and U.S. officials also have said there is no indication Kyiv played any role.

“There is no, whatsoever, any evidence — and, in fact, what we know to be the case is that ISIS-K is actually by all accounts responsible for what happened,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Sunday when asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether the United States had evidence that Ukraine was connected to the concert hall attack.

Some commentators did criticize Russian security services for failing to prevent the tragedy. On Saturday, the state news agency Tass reported , citing a source in the Russian special services, that they had received a warning from the United States but that it was “broad, without any concrete information.”

Maggie Astor

Maggie Astor

Vice President Kamala Harris was asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether the United States had any evidence to back up Vladimir Putin’s hints that Ukraine was connected to the concert hall attack. “No,” she said. “There is no, whatsoever, any evidence — and, in fact, what we know to be the case is that ISIS-K is actually by all accounts responsible for what happened.”

Russia’s Investigative Committee, a top law enforcement agency, said 137 bodies have been recovered from the site of the attack, including those of three children. It said 62 victims had been identified and that genetic testing was being carried out on the remaining bodies to establish identities.

Jason Horowitz

Jason Horowitz

Pope Francis offered prayers today “to the victims of the vile terrorist attack carried out the other night in Moscow,” telling the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome for Palm Sunday Mass that he hoped God would comfort and bring peace to their families and “convert the hearts of those who plan, organize and implement these unhuman acts.’”

He also prayed for all those suffering because of war: “Especially I think of martyred Ukraine, where many people find themselves without electricity because of the intense attacks against infrastructure, which, beyond causing death and suffering, bring about the risk of a human catastrophe of even greater dimensions."

Search and rescue workers are dismantling the remains of the stage at Crocus City Hall so that a giant crane can be brought in to clear debris from the collapse of the roof, the regional governor, Andrei Vorobyov, said on Telegram. Late last night, he said 133 bodies had been recovered from the scene of the attack, of which 50 have been identified. Another 107 injured people were in area hospitals, he said.

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Matthew Mpoke Bigg

As the investigation into the Moscow attack continues, the war in Ukraine carries on. Ukraine's air force said it had shot down 43 out of 57 Russian missiles and drones launched overnight against different parts of the country. And Ukraine’s military said it had struck two large landing ships that were part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. There was no immediate comment from Russia's defense ministry.

Crocus International, the company that owns the concert hall, vowed in a statement to restore everything that was destroyed during the terrorist attack. The cost of restoring the concert hall, one of the biggest and best-equipped in Moscow, will likely exceed $100 million, real estate experts told RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency.

The complex was developed by the Azerbaijan-born billionaire Aras Agalarov, whose son, Emin, is a famous pop star. Former President Donald Trump held the Miss Universe pageant at the same complex in 2013, and world-famous performers like Eric Clapton, Dua Lipa and Sia have also performed there.

Sunday is a national day of mourning in Russia. The state media is airing footage of flags flying at half-staff on government buildings and foreign embassies, and of people bringing flowers, candles and toys to spontaneous memorials across the country.

Alex Marshall

Alex Marshall

Piknik, a longtime Russian rock band, is now at the center of a tragedy.

Early Saturday, Piknik, one of Russia’s most popular heritage rock bands, published a message to its page on Vkontakte , one of the country’s largest social media sites: “We are deeply shocked by this terrible tragedy and mourn with you.”

The night before, the band was scheduled to play the first of two sold-out concerts, accompanied by a symphony orchestra, at Crocus City Hall in suburban Moscow. But before Piknik took the stage, four gunmen entered the vast venue, opened fire and murdered at least 133 people .

The victims appear to have included some of Piknik’s own team. On Saturday evening, another note appeared on the band’s Vkontakte page to say that the woman who ran the band’s merchandise stalls was missing.

“We are not ready to believe the worst,” the message said .

The attack at Crocus City Hall has brought renewed attention to Piknik, a band that has provided the soundtrack to the lives of many Russian rock fans for over four decades.

Ilya Kukulin, a cultural historian at Amherst College in Massachusetts, said in an interview that Piknik was one of the Soviet Union’s “monsters of rock,” with songs inspired by classic Western rock acts including David Bowie and a range of Russian styles.

Since releasing its debut album, 1982’s “Smoke,” Piknik — led by Edmund Shklyarsky, the band’s singer and guitarist — has grown in popularity despite its music being often gloomy with gothic lyrics. Kukulin attributed this partly to the group’s inventive stage shows.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kukulin said, the band began performing with exciting light displays, special effects and other innovative touches. At one point in the 1990s, the band’s concerts included a “living cello” — a woman with an amplified string stretched across her. Shklyarsky would play a solo on the string.

This month, the band debuted a new song online — “ Nothing, Fear Nothing ” — with a video that showed the band performing live before huge screens featuring ever-changing animations.

Unlike some of their peers, Piknik was “never a political band,” Kukulin said, although that did not stop it from becoming entwined in politics. In the 1980s, Soviet authorities banned the group — along with many others — from using recording studios, while Soviet newspapers complained of the group’s lyrics, including a song called “Opium Smoke” that authorities saw as encouraging drug use.

In recent years, some of Russia’s most prominent rock stars have left their country, fed up with President Vladimir V. Putin’s curbs on freedom of expression, including regular crackdowns on concerts. Piknik had benefited from that exodus, Kukulin said, because the band had fewer competitors on Russia’s heritage rock circuit.

Unlike some musicians, Shklyarsky had not acted as a booster for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kukulin said. Still, Ukrainian authorities have long banned Piknik from performing in the country because the group has played concerts in occupied Crimea. In a 2016 interview , Shklyarsky said he was not concerned about the ban.

“Politics comes and goes, but life remains,” he said.

Kukulin said that among Piknik’s songs was “ To the Memory of Innocent Victims ” — a track that could be interpreted as being about those who were politically oppressed under communism. Now, Kukulin said, many fans were hearing the song in a new way, as a tribute to those who lost their lives in Friday’s attack.

Anton Troianovski

Anton Troianovski

news analysis

A deadly attack shatters Putin’s promise of security to the Russian people.

Less than a week ago, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia claimed a fifth term with his highest-ever share of the vote, using a stage-managed election to show the nation and the world that he was firmly in control.

Just days later came a searing counterpoint: His vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years.

The assault on Friday, which killed at least 133 people at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, was a blow to Mr. Putin’s aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. That is especially true after two years of a war in Ukraine that he describes as key to Russia’s survival — and which he cast as his top priority after the election last Sunday.

“The election demonstrated a seemingly confident victory,” Aleksandr Kynev, a Russian political scientist, said in a phone interview from Moscow. “And suddenly, against the backdrop of a confident victory, there’s this demonstrative humiliation.”

Mr. Putin seemed blindsided by the assault. It took him more than 19 hours to address the nation about the attack, the deadliest in Russia since the 2004 school siege in Beslan, in the country’s south, which claimed 334 lives. When he did, the Russian leader said nothing about the mounting evidence that a branch of the Islamic State committed the attack.

Instead, Mr. Putin hinted that Ukraine was behind the tragedy and said the assailants had acted “just like the Nazis,” who “once carried out massacres in the occupied territories” — evoking his frequent, false description of present-day Ukraine as being run by neo-Nazis.

“Our common duty now — our comrades at the front, all citizens of the country — is to be together in one formation,” Mr. Putin said at the end of a five-minute speech, trying to conflate the fight against terrorism with his invasion of Ukraine.

The question is how much of the Russian public will buy into his argument. They might ask whether Mr. Putin, with the invasion and his conflict with the West, truly has the country’s security interests at heart — or whether he is woefully forsaking them, as many of his opponents say he is.

The fact that Mr. Putin apparently ignored a warning from the United States about a potential terrorist attack is likely to deepen the skepticism. Instead of acting on the warnings and tightening security, he dismissed them as “provocative statements.”

“All this resembles outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilize our society,” Mr. Putin said on Tuesday in a speech to the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, referring to the Western warnings. After the attack on Friday, some of his exiled critics have cited his response as evidence of the president’s detachment from Russia’s true security concerns.

Rather than keeping society safe from actual, violent terrorists, those critics say, Mr. Putin has directed his sprawling security services to pursue dissidents, journalists and anyone deemed a threat to the Kremlin’s definition of “traditional values.”

A case in point: Just hours before the attack, state media reported that the Russian authorities had added “the L.G.B.T. movement” to an official list of “terrorists and extremists”; Russia had already outlawed the gay rights movement last year. Terrorism was also among the many charges prosecutors leveled against Aleksei A. Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader who died last month .

“In a country in which counterterrorism special forces chase after online commenters,” Ruslan Leviev, an exiled Russian military analyst, wrote in a social media post on Saturday, “terrorists will always feel free.”

Even as the Islamic State repeatedly claimed responsibility for the attack and Ukraine denied any involvement, the Kremlin’s messengers pushed into overdrive to try to persuade the Russian public that this was merely a ruse.

Olga Skabeyeva, a state television host, wrote on Telegram that Ukrainian military intelligence had found assailants “who would look like ISIS. But this is no ISIS.” Margarita Simonyan, the editor of the state-run RT television network, wrote that reports of Islamic State responsibility amounted to a “basic sleight of hand” by the American news media.

On a prime-time television talk show on the state-run Channel 1, Russia’s best-known ultraconservative ideologue, Aleksandr Dugin, declared that Ukraine’s leadership and “their puppet masters in the Western intelligence services” had surely organized the attack.

It was an effort to “undermine trust in the president,” Mr. Dugin said, and it showed regular Russians that they had no choice but to unite behind Mr. Putin’s war against Ukraine.

Mr. Dugin’s daughter was killed in a car bombing near Moscow in 2022 that U.S. officials said was indeed authorized by parts of the Ukrainian government , but without American involvement.

U.S. officials have said there is no evidence of Ukrainian involvement in the concert hall attack, and Ukrainian officials ridiculed the Russian accusations. Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said Mr. Putin’s claim that the attackers had fled toward Ukraine and intended to cross into it, with the help of the Ukrainian authorities, made no sense.

In recent months, Mr. Putin has appeared more confident than at any other point since he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces have retaken the initiative on the front line, while Ukraine is struggling amid flagging Western support and a shortage of troops.

Inside Russia, the election — and its predetermined outcome — underscored Mr. Putin’s dominance over the nation’s politics.

Mr. Kynev, the political scientist, said he believed many Russians were now in “shock,” because “restoring order has always been Vladimir Putin’s calling card.”

Mr. Putin’s early years in power were marked by terrorist attacks, culminating in the Beslan school siege in 2004; he used those violent episodes to justify his rollback of political freedoms. Before Friday, the most recent mass-casualty terrorist attack in the capital region was a suicide bombing at an airport in Moscow in 2011 that killed 37 people.

Still, given the Kremlin’s efficacy in cracking down on dissent and the news media, Mr. Kynev predicted that the political consequences of the concert hall attack would be limited, as long as the violence was not repeated.

“To be honest,” he said, “our society has gotten used to keeping quiet about inconvenient topics.”

Constant Méheut contributed reporting.

Caryn Ganz

There have been other deadly attacks at concerts and music festivals in recent years.

The attack before a sold-out rock concert near Moscow on Friday was the latest in a series of mass killings at concerts and music festivals around the world in recent years.

During the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel last year, Hamas targeted Tribe of Nova’s Supernova Sukkot Gathering , a dance music festival in Re’im, leaving at least 360 dead , according to the Israeli authorities. Gunmen surrounded the music festival at daybreak, killing and kidnapping attendees as others fled in their cars, only to find roads blocked and the event surrounded. “It was like a shooting range,” said Hila Fakliro, who was bartending around sunrise. Around 3,000 people had come to the event, timed to the end of the harvest holiday Sukkot.

In May 2017, a suicide bombing killed 22 people and injured hundreds more at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in England. The assailant, a British citizen of Libyan descent, detonated explosives packed with nails, bolts and ball bearings moments after the performance ended, sending the crowd — filled with children and adolescent fans of the pop singer, who was then 23 — into a panic. Intelligence officials found that the bomber had previously traveled to Libya to meet with members of an Islamic State unit linked to terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, which included an assault on a concert venue.

In November 2015, 90 people were killed at the Bataclan , a Paris music venue that holds 1,500, when three men armed with assault rifles and suicide vests stormed a concert by the California rock band Eagles of Death Metal. The musicians fled the stage as gunfire broke out, and attendees tried to hide from the assailants. A standoff with the police lasted more than two hours, with concertgoers held as hostages, ending when the police entered the club. One attacker was killed; two others detonated suicide vests. “Carnage,” one attendee posted on Facebook from inside the club. “Bodies everywhere.”

The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history took place at a music festival in October 2017, when a gunman fatally shot 60 people and injured hundreds more attending the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas . The assailant had stockpiled 23 firearms in a 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, opening fire from his window as Jason Aldean was onstage singing “When She Says Baby.” “It was just total chaos,” Melissa Ayala, who attended the festival with four friends, said. “People falling down and laying everywhere. We were trying to take cover and we had no idea where to go.” The F.B.I. concluded that the motive for the killings was unclear, but released files last year suggesting that the gunman, a gambler, was angry over casinos scaling back on perks. He had searched “biggest open air concert venues in USA” and reserved a hotel room overlooking the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago before settling on the Las Vegas event as his target.

The people killed at recent concerts and music festivals were commemorated earlier this year at the Grammy Awards . “Music must always be our safe space,” Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the Recording Academy, which gives out the awards, said during the telecast. “When that’s violated, it strikes at the very core of who we are.”

Christina Goldbaum

Christina Goldbaum

The ISIS branch the U.S. blames for the attack has targeted the Taliban’s links with allies, including Russia.

The ISIS affiliate that American officials say was behind the deadly attack in Moscow is one of the last significant antagonists that the Taliban government faces in Afghanistan, and it has carried out repeated attacks there, including on the Russian Embassy, in recent years.

That branch of ISIS — known as the Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K — has portrayed itself as the primary rival to the Taliban, who it says have not implemented true Shariah law since seizing power in 2021. It has sought to undermine the Taliban’s relationships with regional allies and portray the government as unable to provide security in the country, experts say.

In 2022, ISIS-K carried out attacks on the Russian and Pakistani embassies in Kabul and a hotel that was home to many Chinese nationals. More recently, it has also threatened attacks against the Chinese, Indian and Iranian embassies in Afghanistan and has released a flood of anti-Russian propaganda.

It has also struck outside Afghanistan. In January, ISIS-K carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed scores and wounded hundreds of others at a memorial service for Iran’s former top general, Qassim Suleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike four years before.

In recent months, the Taliban’s relationship with Russia, as well as China and Iran, has warmed up. While no country has officially recognized the Taliban government, earlier this month Russia accepted a military attaché from the Taliban in Moscow, while China officially accepted a Taliban ambassador to the country. Both moves were seen as confidence-building measures with Taliban authorities.

ISIS-K has both denounced the Kremlin for its interventions in Syria and condemned the Taliban for engaging with Russian authorities decades after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Its propaganda has painted the Taliban as “betraying the history of Afghanistan and betraying their religion by making friends with their former enemies,” said Ricardo Valle, the director of research of the Khorasan Diary, a research platform based in Islamabad.

In the more than two years since they took over in Afghanistan, Taliban security forces have conducted a ruthless campaign to try to eliminate ISIS-K and have successfully prevented the group from seizing territory within Afghanistan. Last year, Taliban security forces killed at least eight ISIS-K leaders, according to American officials, and pushed many other fighters into neighboring Pakistan .

Still, ISIS-K has proved resilient and remained active across Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Within Afghanistan, it has targeted Taliban security forces in hit-and-run attacks and — as it came under increasing pressure from Taliban counterterrorism operations — staged headline-grabbing attacks across the country. Just a day before the attack at the concert hall in Moscow, the group carried out a suicide bombing in Kandahar — the birthplace of the Taliban movement — sending a powerful message that even Taliban soldiers in the group’s heartland were not safe.

After the attack in Moscow, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, said in a statement on social media that the country “condemns in the strongest terms the recent terrorist attack in Moscow” and “considers it a blatant violation of all human standards.”

“Regional countries must take a coordinated, clear and resolute position against such incidents directed at regional de-stabilization,” he added.

Oleg Matsnev

Oleg Matsnev

Names of the victims are beginning to emerge.

As emergency services combed the scene of the attack on a concert hall in Moscow, details on some of the victims began to emerge from officials and local news media.

Most of those identified so far appeared to be in their 40s, and many had traveled from other parts of the country to attend the concert where Piknik, a Russian rock band formed in the late 1970s, was slated to perform on Friday night.

Alexander Baklemyshev, 51, had long dreamed about seeing the band, his son told local media , and had traveled solo from his home city of Satka, some 1,000 miles east of Moscow, for the concert.

His son, Maksim, told the Russian news outlet MSK1 that his father had sent him a video of the concert hall before the attack. That was the last he heard from his father.

Irina Okisheva and her husband, Pavel Okishev, also traveled hundreds of miles to attend the concert — making their way from Kirov, northeast of Moscow. Mr. Okishev had received the tickets as an early birthday present. He was set to turn 35 next week, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported. Both he and his wife died in the attack, the paper reported.

“Very painful and scary,” Ms. Okisheva’s colleagues wrote on a social media page for a photo studio where she worked. “The whole studio team is horrified by what happened.”

Anastasiya Volkova lost both of her parents in the attack. She told 5 TV that she had missed a call from her mother on Friday night at around the time of the attack. When she called back, there was no response, Ms. Volkova said.

As the death toll climbed to 133 people, the Moscow region’s health care ministry published a preliminary list of victims . It had 41 names; Andrey Rudnitsky was one of them.

A forward in an amateur hockey league, he turned 39 years old last week, according to his page on the league’s website. Mr. Rudnitsky’s teammates told Pro Gorod , a local news website, that he had moved to Moscow last year from Yaroslavl but planned to return home to play there. Mr. Rudnitsky had two children.

Ekaterina Novoselova, 42, was also on the list. Ms. Novoselova won a beauty pageant in 2001 in her home city of Tver, 110 miles northwest of Moscow, one of the pageant organizer’s told the local news outlet TIA . It reported that she had moved to Moscow to work as a lawyer and is survived by her husband and two children.

Some people appeared to have been named by mistake. Yevgeniya Ryumina, 38, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that she had fled the concert hall to safety. But she had lost her ID, Ms. Ryumina said, suggesting that might have led to the confusion.

This is what we know about the attack.

An attack Friday at a popular concert venue near Moscow killed 137 people, the deadliest act of terrorism the Russian capital region has seen in more than a decade.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack; American officials have attributed it to ISIS-K, a branch of the group.

Russian officials and state media have largely ignored ISIS’s claim of responsibility and instead suggested that Ukraine was behind the violence. Ukraine has denied any involvement, and American officials say there is no evidence connecting Kyiv to the attack.

Russian authorities have detained at least 11 people, including four migrant laborers described as Tajik citizens who have been charged with committing a terrorist act, but they have not identified most of the accused assailants or their motives.

Here’s a closer look at the attack.

What happened?

The gunmen entered the Crocus City Hall building, one of the biggest entertainment complexes in the Moscow area, with capacity of more than 6,000, shortly before a sold-out rock concert was scheduled to start. Armed with automatic rifles, they began shooting.

Using explosives and flammable liquids, Russian investigators said, they set the building ablaze, causing chaos as people began to run. The fire quickly engulfed more than a third of the building, spreading smoke and causing parts of the roof to collapse. Russia’s emergency service posted a video and pictures from after the fire showing charred seating and firefighters working to remove debris.

Russian law enforcement said that people had died from gunshot wounds and poisoning from the smoke.

At least three helicopters were dispatched to extinguish the fire or to try to rescue people from the roof. The firefighters were only able to contain the fire early on Saturday; the emergency service said it was mostly extinguished by 5 a.m.

The search for survivors ended on Saturday, as details about the victims began to emerge. Many of the more than 100 people injured in the attack were in critical condition.

Where are the assailants?

Attackers were able to flee the scene. Early on Saturday, the head of Russia’s top security agency, the F.S.B., said that 11 people had been detained in the connection to the attack, including “all four terrorists directly involved.” The four men were arraigned late Sunday and charged with committing a terrorist act, according to state and independent media outlets, and they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The press service of the Basmanny District Court said that the first two defendants, Dalerjon B. Mirzoyev and Saidakrami M. Rachalbalizoda, had pleaded guilty to the charges.

It did not specify any plea from the other two — Muhammadsobir Z. Fayzov, a 19-year-old barber and the youngest of the men charged, and Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, a married factory worker with an 8-month-old baby — according to Mediazona, an independent news outlet.

The men looked severely battered and injured as they appeared in court, and videos of them being tortured and beaten while under interrogation circulated widely on Russian social media.

There were signs that Russia would try to pin blame on Ukraine, despite the claim of responsibility by the Islamic State. The F.S.B. said in a statement that the attack had been carefully planned and that the terrorists had tried to flee toward Ukraine.

How are Russians responding?

President Vladimir V. Putin, who claimed victory in a presidential election last weekend, did not publicly address the tragedy until Saturday afternoon. In a five-minute address to the nation, he appeared to be laying the groundwork to blame Ukraine for the attack, claiming that “the Ukrainian side” had “prepared a window” for the attackers to cross the border from Russia into Ukraine.

But he did not definitively assign blame, saying that those responsible would be punished, “whoever they may be, whoever may have sent them.”

The attack has punctured the sense of relative safety for Muscovites over the past decade, bringing back memories of attacks that shadowed life in the Russian capital in the 2000s.

Russia observed a national day of mourning on Sunday as questions lingered about the identities and motives of the perpetrators. Flags were lowered to half-staff at buildings across the country.

Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting.

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    Grueninger Travel offers top-tier casino trips and partners with Caesar's, MGM, Penn, and Boyd gaming to help create the best casino trip experience for you. Our office is closed for Thanksgiving. We'll be back in office on Mon, Nov. 27th. Happy Thanksgiving! Call (260) 969-5626.

  2. Home Page

    Grueninger Travel offers top-tier casino trips and partners with Caesar's, MGM, Penn, and Boyd gaming to help create the best casino trip experience for you.

  3. Grueninger Travel

    How to get started. 1. Give us a call at 260-482-8251 or fill out the form below. 2. A team member will go over the options with you. 3. We'll take care of the details and book your dream trip!

  4. Grueninger Casino Trips

    The Book Bar & GrillA VIP lounge area, roomy booth dining and individual seating invite guests to enjoy a game, a collection of comfort food and American sports bar classics and a vast assortment of wine and cocktail offerings, including a varied beer selection featuring seasonal and regional drafts, in a comfortable smoke-free environment.

  5. Grueninger Casino Trips

    We offer two easy ways to get started with booking your Individual Trip. Call us directly 260-969-5626 and ask for Lisa, or fill out our Individual Trip Form on our website and let us know a good time to reach out to you.

  6. Grueninger Casino Trips

    Grueninger Casino Trips, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 506 likes · 1 talking about this. Grueninger Casino Trips is a full-service casino booking agency and casino representative group

  7. Grueninger

    Starting at. $2899/person. Enjoy the best of the Pacific Northwest aboard the Columbia and Snake river cruises. Choose to cruise from Portland to Spokane, or the reverse for the trip of a lifetime. Embark on a river cruise to see that the natural world is alive here - unlike anywhere else on earth - and through historic sites and locks and ...

  8. Grueninger Travel Service

    Grueninger Travel Service | 214 followers on LinkedIn. Opening the world to you! | We're a full-service travel agency focusing on vacation packages and casino tours. We've proudly been in ...

  9. News

    Grueninger Travel is a full-service travel agency that can customize and plan trips to fit any client's unique needs. The Fort Wayne-based agency is proudly family-owned and operated for the past 46 years, offering planning services for everything from cruises to casino trips, honeymoons, and more.

  10. Contact Us

    Casino Gold Tours and Grueninger Travel are independently owned casino trip booking agencies, specializing in casino charter trips from across the country. ...

  11. Beau Rivage Trips

    Casino Gold Tours and Grueninger Travel are independently owned casino trip booking agencies, specializing in casino charter trips from across the country. ...

  12. Grueninger Travel

    December 15, 2020. 2020 was full of memorable trips for our travel advisors. We reminisce on our favorite destinations of the year, from Michigan to Mexico and several beaches and cities in between. Though 2020 wasn't what we expected, we're thankful for a year of travel both near and far. The one thing in common for our 2021 plans?

  13. Grueninger

    Grueninger Travel is a full-service travel agency specializing in tours, cruises, and resort packages Our office is open by appointment only. Please call us to set up an appointment.

  14. Travel Blog

    Advisor Spotlight - Mona Will. After more than a year without traveling outside of the US, our travel advisor Mona was ready to head south of the border this March. She experienced the Covid-19 testing for reentry into the US at her resort firsthand, and had a rejuvenating stay at the adults only Secrets Vallarta Bay. Read the rest of the story.

  15. Beau Rivage Charters

    Our team books players on casino trips, help players maximize their comps, earn free trips and more. We're making it easier than ever to get booked to the Beau Rivage at the best rate possible. IMPORTANT Passenger Fee Increase - effective for May flights (includes April flights that has a return date in May) the Passenger Fees for all flights ...

  16. Contact Us

    Fort Wayne, Indiana 46804. Email. receptionist @ grueningertravel.net. Phone Number. Direct: 260-482-8251. Toll Free: 1-800-552-4978. WORKING HOURS. 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM, Mon to Fri. Want to get in touch with us?

  17. The Best Moscow Casino Hotels & Resorts

    Find Casino Hotels & Resorts in Moscow. Most hotels are fully refundable. Because flexibility matters. Save 10% or more on over 100,000 hotels worldwide as a One Key member. Search over 2.9 million properties and 550 airlines worldwide.

  18. 10 casinos that RULED Moscow

    2. Beverly Hills. Vladimir Yatsina/TASS. In August 1993, a new casino opened in one of the 7 Stalin skyscrapers in Moscow. It was called 'The Firebird', but only three years later, in 1996 ...

  19. THE BEST Moscow Casinos You'll Want to Visit (Updated 2024)

    Casinos & Gambling in Moscow. 1. Central Moscow Hippodrome. Best contact the track to book a table for lunch overlooking the race track. Great day out... Top Moscow Casinos: See reviews and photos of casinos & gambling attractions in Moscow, Russia on Tripadvisor.

  20. Security Questions Emerge as First Charges Are Filed in Russia Attack

    Russian officials formally charged four men in the attack, which killed at least 137 people at a Moscow-area concert hall on Friday. American officials blamed a branch of the Islamic State.

  21. THE BEST Moscow Casinos (Updated 2024)

    1. Central Moscow Hippodrome. 57. Horse Tracks. District Northern (SAO) By Arakis12000. Best contact the track to book a table for lunch overlooking the race track. Great day out... Top Moscow Casinos: See reviews and photos of casinos & gambling attractions in Moscow, Russia on Tripadvisor.