MOSCOW (Reuters) – A woman suspected of beheading a child in her care before brandishing the severed head outside a Moscow metro station has said she acted to avenge Muslims killed in the Kremlin’s campaign of air strikes in Syria.
In video footage posted online on Thursday and circulated by several prominent bloggers, the woman, 38-year-old Gulchekhra Bobokulova of Muslim-majority Uzbekistan, gave her first detailed explanation of an incident which state TV channels chose not to report.
“I took revenge against those who spilled blood,” Bobokulova told someone asking her questions off camera. “Putin spilled blood, planes carried out bombings. Why are Muslims being killed? They also want to live.”
It was not clear when the video was filmed, but Bobokulova was wearing the same clothes as during a court appearance on Wednesday.
The Kremlin launched its campaign of air strikes in Syria on Sept. 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad, an intervention that altered the course of the conflict.