Vladimir Putin’s propaganda behind images of tortured defendants

While the Kremlin has refused to comment on the torture allegations, images of Moscow murder defendants arriving in court leave little room for doubt.

Four suspects presented in Russia as attackers of a concert hall near Moscow were remanded in pre-trial detention on Monday, May 25.

He faces life in prison for killing at least 139 people this Friday. In footage of their arrest shown on Russian public television, three men had blood on their faces. In the morning, in court, he appeared very weak, bearing the stigma that many attributed to Russian torture.

Images relayed on state television

According to footage taken at Moscow’s Basmani court, the suspects were brought one by one into the glass cages reserved for the accused.

Saidakrami Murodali Rachablizoda, 30, who confessed to the crime, had bandaged her ears. In a video widely circulated on social networks – the authenticity of which has not been confirmed – a police officer allegedly cuts off his ear with a knife.

Muhammadsobir Faizov, a 19-year-old man, entered the court in a wheelchair, blindfolded and accompanied by doctors. During the day, he was beaten up and suffered a serious eye injury in pictures that went viral on social networks.

A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment Monday on the allegations of torture of the suspects. “I will leave this question unanswered,” Dmitry Peskov said when asked by reporters.

Distract from security “skip”.

But the dramatization of the immediate appearance of these suspects leaves no doubt for many observers of Russian society: Vladimir Putin wants to restore fear, when the attackers were able to kill more than 130 people and escape for four hours without arrest.

“The large population listens to the propaganda,” former French ambassador to Russia Sylvie Berman explained to AFP.

Which led Jerome Poirot, BFMTV consultant and former deputy for national intelligence coordination, to analyze:

“It is heartening to see the abuse that the accused suffered, both from the security services of the Russian FSB, who published these images, and then from the part of the Russian public, who are very keen on these images.”

According to Nadezhda Kutepova, a Russian political refugee and member of the Russia-Liberties Association, “it is not possible to say that the Russian people wanted” these men to be tortured. “But Vladimir Putin has understood very well the feelings of anger, of revenge” to lean on, she commented.

Some Russian MPs and senior officials have also called for the reinstatement of the death penalty for “terrorists”, noting that Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday evening. Claims ignored by Vladimir Putin, who nevertheless acknowledged the “Islamist” attack with links to Ukraine.

A way for the Russian president to divert attention from “security shortcomings,” according to Tatiana Castouva-Jean, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) to AFP. This allows him to rally “all who are still hesitant on the domestic scene” about the need to fight the West and Ukraine.