Nanny Says Beheading Girl, 4, Was Revenge on Putin

A nanny from Uzbekistan accused of decapitating a 4-year-old girl and brandishing her head outside a Moscow subway station said during an apparent interrogation captured on video that the killing was an act of revenge against President Vladimir Putin for Russian airstrikes in Syria. Gulchekhra Bobokulova, 38, was detained in Moscow on Monday after the child in her care was killed. Video footage posted online Thursday appeared to show police interrogating her. It was not clear where the video originated, and the AP could not verify its authenticity or the circumstances in which it was taken. She appeared to be wearing the same clothes she wore during a court appearance on Wednesday. Putin's spokesman said it was difficult to judge the testimony of a woman he called "clearly deranged."

In the video, she says the killing of the child was done in revenge. Asked who it was revenge against, she says "the one who has spilled the blood." Asked who that was, she replies: "Who spilled it? Putin has been dropping bombs." Russia has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria for five months to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's offensive against rebels. The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative agency, would not confirm or deny the authenticity of the video, but spokesman Vladimir Markin warned that Bobokulova's words should be treated with caution. "The motive for a crime committed by a person who was diagnosed with schizophrenia often does not coincide with the explanations that they give later," he said, adding that investigators will look into all possible theories. (More Russia stories.)