Latvian police are preventing people in the capital of Riga from laying flowers outside the Russian Embassy in memory of the victims of Friday's terrorist attack on a concert hall on the western edge of Moscow, but a makeshift memorial still sprang up on the other side of the street, the Russian diplomatic mission said.
"Hundreds of Latvian residents who share the pain of our people continue to bring flowers and oil lamps to the walls of the Embassy in Riga as a sign of support for Russia and the families of the victims of the tragic events in the Moscow Region … Latvian police forbid caring citizens to approach the diplomatic mission building to honor the memory of the victims of the horrific terrorist attack," the embassy wrote on Telegram on Saturday.
The makeshift memorial was set up across the street from the embassy, among the items put on display "by Latvian nationalists and Russophobes," the embassy said.
It also pointed out that Latvian officials had neither condemned the terrorist attack near Moscow nor offered condolences to the families of the victims, which "suggests that Riga is well aware of who is behind this bloodshed and endorses terror against the civilian population" of Russia.
The Russian Investigative Committee said the number of those killed in the terrorist attack had so far reached 133, according to the latest data, while Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group, said the death toll stood at 143.
Eleven people were detained in connection with the attack, including four who were directly responsible, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said. All four were detained in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, a few hours apart, the FSB added.