MOSCOW, April 24./TASS/. Those people abroad who plan and fund terrorist attacks in Russia, including the recent attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue, should spend the rest of their lives behind bars, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) Irina Yarovaya said.

Earlier, the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Financial Monitoring, Yury Chikhanchin, said that the Crocus terrorist attack had been intricately planned, and an international network of conspirators made it all happen.

"Persons in Ukraine and across the ocean, who plan, organize and finance terrorist attacks against civilians in the Belgorod Region and other regions of our country, at Crocus City Hall, should be held responsible under the article 'international terrorism' with life imprisonment for committing and financing them," Yarovaya told reporters.

The senior lawmaker reiterated that in 2016, parliamentarians devised a comprehensive anti-terrorist package. "The notion of 'international terrorism' was for the first time added to the legislation, with a harsher criminal punishment established for financing terrorism, inducing, recruiting and involving a person in committing terrorism-related crimes, for making public calls for terrorist activity or public justification of terrorism, as well as for receiving training for the purpose of terrorist activity," she specified. The same systemic approach was envisaged in 2023 for sabotage activities, Yarovaya added.

Yarovaya emphasized that work is now underway to arrive at additional legislative solutions shortly to protect the lives and health of Russian citizens.