Shocked Russians brought flowers and teddy bears to the Crocus City concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow today to pay their respects to more than 100 people killed in a gruesome attack that Islamic State says it carried out.
This is what the Associated Press (AP) agency writes in the article "The deadly attack on the Moscow concert hall shakes the Russian capital and sows doubts about security".
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Mourners hung flowers on the fence and piled them on the ground not far from the concert hall where the attackers opened fire on the audience in the concert hall and planted explosives that caused a huge fire. Amidst the grief, firefighters pulled bodies from the rubble and extinguished the flames.
Videos on social media show candles and flowers being laid in memory of the dead and wounded at monuments across Russia and at Russian embassies abroad.
The attack came just days after President Vladimir Putin consolidated power by securing a record fifth term after harshly suppressing opposition voices during deeply "choreographed" elections. The attack was the deadliest in Russia in years and left the concert hall in ruins.
The attack strained nerves in Moscow and recalled similar attacks in the first years of Putin's presidency. Although the Islamic State claimed responsibility, Putin pointed the finger at Ukraine, where Russia is waging a war that has dragged on for the third year. He provided no evidence for that claim.
As the number of found dead grew and Putin ordered ever stronger security measures across the country, some Russians are asking about it.
"There are cameras everywhere that can follow people from the opposition who go to the meeting, and stop them even in the subway. But the basic security did not work at the public event," said Ekaterina in Moscow, who did not want to give her last name, as did other citizens - interlocutors of the agency AP.
"Does that mean the cameras are aimed at people carrying a book... but you can carry a bomb or a Kalashnikov, and that will be fine?" she asked, referring to footage on social media showing the attackers in concert hall with automatic weapons.
Russian state television highlighted the condolences of foreign leaders and the outpouring of grief throughout Russia. It released photos of suspects and officials visiting hospitals and managing the clean-up operation.
"This morning I woke up and decided that I definitely have to come here," Mihail told AP outside the concert hall. "There are no words for such scum... what they have done is a terrible thing".
"I couldn't stop crying," Elvira said.
Russian news agencies showed people lining up to donate blood. They said more than 3.000 people had already donated blood for the surviving victims of the attack.
Despite the general coverage, state television lacked key information about the attack, prompting some pro-Western Russians to look elsewhere for details.
"It's funny because it happened in my city, and I asked my friends who live abroad," said Ekaterina.
Russia is no stranger to mass attacks with a large number of victims.
During the early 2000s and 2010s, there were a series of suicide bombings and other attacks across Moscow, including the 2002 Nord Ost theater siege, in which 132 hostages and 40 Chechen attackers died due to a botched response by Russian rescue services.
Most of the attacks have been carried out by Islamist separatists from the North Caucasus, but attacks have largely stopped in recent years. The relative absence of such violence has lulled Russians into a sense of security, even as the military battles in Ukraine.
"I'm afraid we might go back to the time of the Chechen wars," Mikhail Bacin said in central Moscow, referring to the bombings of residential buildings at the time. "I would really like it not to happen and for this act of terrorism to remain an isolated event," he added.
The fact that the authorities were unable to stop the gunmen from rampaging through the concert hall, which reportedly already had security measures in place, scared many Russians.
In a social media group for the neighborhood south of the concert hall and mall, the Russians discussed what precautions they would take immediately. A few suggested temporarily stopping visiting malls and busy places.
"I don't want to go anywhere where there are a lot of people anymore," said Ekaterina, adding that she canceled an arranged trip to the theater.
Putin called the attack a "bloody, barbaric terrorist act" and called on "our comrades at the front and all citizens of the country" to gather.
Speaking to everyone across the country, he said Ukrainian authorities had tried to "create a window" for the suspects in the Moscow attack to escape across the border.
"Some of my friends believe in the theory of Ukrainian involvement, but I can't imagine it could be true," said Elvira and several other Russians who spoke to the AP.
In addition, they asked why the Russian security services did not thwart the attack.
"Why do they say that there were warnings from foreign security services, and that our services were completely indifferent?" Olga asked in Moscow, referring to reports that Western governments had warned Russian officials that an attack was being planned. "How can this happen in 2024?" - she doesn't understand that.
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