Vladimir Putin pays tribute to the victims of the Crocus City Hall attack, in the church of his residence in Novo-Ogarevo, a suburb of Moscow, on March 24, 2024. MIKHAIL METZEL / VIA REUTERS
Dazed, shocked, sometimes incredulous, Russia mourns the deaths of Crocus City Hall. From Saturday March 23, the day after the attack claimed by the Islamic State organization, hundreds of Muscovites placed flowers and stuffed animals in front of the half-burned Krasnogorsk exhibition center, on the outskirts of Moscow. This is where terrorists armed with automatic rifles burst in to kill on Friday in the middle of a concert by the rock group Piknik.
On Sunday, a day of national mourning decreed by Vladimir Putin, there were still thousands of them. And thousands in the rest of the country, to gather in front of improvised memorials. Flags were flown at half-mast, including those at the embassies of most Western countries. Thousands of people also queued to donate blood.
The toll, which continued to grow over the weekend, reaching 137 dead and 180 injured on Sunday evening, is part of this emotion, more palpable than that surrounding the war in Ukraine – as are the testimonies giving a glimpse of the brutality of the attack. The Islamic State organization in Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the terrorist group, broadcast a new message of demand on Saturday, accompanied by a video showing the four attackers in action. They were not content with shooting around and then inside the performance hall; injured spectators had their throats slit with knives. The fire in the building, which was immensely deadly, was caused.
After that of mourning, will the time for questions come? In any other country, this would have been the case, there are so many of them. Not in Russia. No one will have the opportunity to call Vladimir Putin to account, who nevertheless single-handedly embodies the flaws that emerged as a result of this attack.
Security vulnerabilities
Three days before the tragedy, the Head of State brushed aside the multiple American warnings, public but also transmitted from service to service, as confirmed by the Russian side, regarding the imminence of an attack: “Provocations and “obvious blackmail, intended to destabilize and frighten our society”, he said on March 19 in front of his former colleagues from the FSB (federal security service), preferring to focus on the real enemies threatening the country – the “traitors”. These are not just words: cases officially linked to “terrorism” have increased exponentially in 2023 – they concern almost exclusively opponents of the war in Ukraine.
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