Highlights: Moscow attack: a week later, invisible mourning. Vladimir Putin has still not visited the scene, has not yet met the families of the victims. Many Russians draw parallels between the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall and the three-day hostage taking at a Beslan school 20 years ago. The first burials began this Wednesday, and only the local media reported on them. The newspaper RBK reports that the Russians are massively returning tickets taken for public events: 100,000 in the five days following the deadly attack.

The attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall, which took place a week ago, left at least 139 dead and 360 injured, according to a latest official report, 95 missing and/or unidentified dead.…

Moscow attack: a week later, invisible mourning

The attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall, which took place a week ago, left at least 139 dead and 360 injured, according to a latest official report, 95 missing and/or unidentified dead. Vladimir Putin has still not visited the scene, has not yet met the families of the victims. Last Sunday was indeed declared a day of national mourning by the Russian head of state, but grief and mourning are experienced almost individually.

A woman laying flowers next to a memorial in front of Crocus City Hall near Moscow, March 27, 2024 © Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Moscow,

Anissa El Jabri

Wednesday evening, like a rush from post-attack Russia. On the one hand,

Vladimir Putin

's official trip

on the theme of culture, widely reported. On the other, the group Piknik, which had to flee its own concert which was attacked on Friday evening, and which returned to the stage in Saint Petersburg.

Outside the room, according to the media “Fontanka”, a massive deployment of security forces, national guard and riot police. Inside, survivors of last Friday's concert, mixed with spectators who had come specifically. The proceeds collected will all be allocated to the families of the victims, the group announced. After a minute of silence, PikNik delivered a restrained performance, with a playlist specifically designed for this evening.

This moment of communion, mourning and resilience under high protection was made public only on social networks. Not an image on state television. At the same time, the official cameras were riveted on the trip of the Russian head of state. “

We are in the small town of Torzhok, 40,000 thousand inhabitants. It is clear that the arrival of the president there is a huge event

,” announces the reporter of the presidential pool of the Rossiya 1 channel.

Vladimir Putin devoted two hours to this official visit on the theme of culture in this city halfway between the Russian capital and Saint Petersburg, lingering on old works, evoking expanded access to the “Pushkin” map », the reduction card for access to cultural places. The only reference to the evening which shocked its population, these few words: “

I should have come on Monday, but due to the tragic events in Moscow, with this barbaric terrorist attack, we have postponed all the events. But the fact is that culture, since it is the spiritual framework of the people and supports our identity, plays an important role in such difficult, even tragic times, because it gives strength to the people and to each individual.

Still no visit from Vladimir Putin to Crocus City Hall

The first burials began this Wednesday, and only the local media reported on them. The injured people the legitimist media talk about are those who leave the hospital. A sign of the concern and anguish that still reigns, the newspaper RBK reports that the Russians are massively returning tickets taken for public events: 100,000 in the five days following the deadly attack on the Crocus.

Many Russians draw parallels between the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall and the three-day hostage taking at a

Beslan school

20 years ago. For them, the shock, the sadness, the sudden feeling of insecurity in their daily life is the same. At the time, Vladimir Putin took four days before going to the site and this Thursday, the Kremlin spokesperson explained that we would have to wait even longer.

“

At the moment, going to the site is still completely impractical, and it would simply interfere with the work and organization of the personnel who are still on the scene

”

said Dmitry Peskov. “

As for the families and loved ones of the victims, all the services concerned are already in contact with them. Payments and compensations have already started from the Moscow region and the city of Moscow. Everything is done very quickly and the work continues.

As for whether the Russian head of state intends to meet the victims' families, there are no details either.

During this period, the government is also seeking to channel the anger expressed by part of the population. We do not yet know whether the ongoing debates on the end of the moratorium on the death penalty will find a concrete outcome. But – perhaps a signal that the authorities are not leaning in this direction – on Wednesday, a reporter from the Rossiya 24 channel went to a penal colony in the Arctic, a so-called “

severe regime

” colony, i.e. type of prison where attackers could be sent. He describes terrible weather, "

in winter the temperature sometimes drops below 45 degrees, and in summer the air warms up to 30-35 degrees

." A place that “

gives chills and goosebumps, because it is where the most brutal and soulless criminals and cannibalistic terrorists are held. The light in the cell is always on and the cell is always monitored. Conversations between prisoners are prohibited. They are entitled to a daily walk of up to an hour and a half, in a courtyard devoid of natural light

”, in short, “

detention conditions worse than death

”.

At no time do the reporter or the channel give this clarification: the penal colony described here is the one where Alexeï Navalny died, in very murky circumstances.

Read alsoAttack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow: Tajik migrants face a wave of rejection

Moscow attack: a week later, invisible mourning

Moscow attack: a week later, invisible mourning

Still no visit from Vladimir Putin to Crocus City Hall

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