Devendra Kumar
The crooked and charred remains of the Crocus City concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow still lingered with the stench of death, as over 100 people lay lifeless amidst the rubble. The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the gruesome attack, sending a wave of grief and fear coursing through Russia. The once serene concert hall now stood in ruins, its walls bearing testimony to the devastating power of hatred. Firefighters toiled to extinguish the flames, while rescue teams battled to retrieve bodies from the debris.
As the nation struggled to come to terms with the sheer scale of the tragedy, President Vladimir Putin’s fifth term in office was left hanging precariously in the balance. Some Russians questioned the government’s ability to protect its citizens, pointing to the attacker’s ability to penetrate the concert hall’s security measures and the presence of CCTV cameras. “I don’t want to go anywhere with a lot of people anymore,” said Ekaterina, a Moscow resident, her voice laced with fear and uncertainty. “Does it mean that cameras are targeted on people who carry a book, but you can carry a bomb or a Kalashnikov, and that will be OK?”
The Russian president urged his citizens to come together in the aftermath of the attack, but many Russians remained skeptical, reeling from the shock and trauma. “Why is it that they say that there were warnings from foreign security services, but our services were completely indifferent?” asked Olga, a Moscow resident, her words laced with anger and frustration. “How can this happen in 2024?”
The attack brought back memories of similar attacks in the early days of Putin’s presidency, when suicide bombings and attacks ravaged Moscow, leaving hundreds dead. Many Russians now feared that they may be returning to those dark times, with Mikhail Batsyn, a central Moscow resident, expressing his hopes that the current act of terror would remain a rare event. As the nation mourned the loss of so many lives, the attack raised critical questions about the government’s efficacy in protecting its citizens. The report noted that while most attacks in the past were carried out by Islamist separatists from the North Caucasus, they had largely slowed down in recent years, lulling Russians into a false sense of security, even as the country continued to fight in Ukraine.