Though it stretches the boundaries of our home region, it is important to remember the Beslan massacre, as important as it is for us to remember Andijon. It seemed like some sort of line had been crossed, as if the brutal Chechen war had somehow found a new form of brutality: no longer content to target towns for annihilation, as Russia had with Aldi, it seemed the Chechens had taken to simply targeting Russian children.
I want to say it seems fitting that Moscow would choose this day for a city-wide celebration, but I can’t imagine them being so heartless. The murder of hundreds of children during a seige (reports of them firing machine guns into the backs of fleeing students still make my stomach flip) is surely worth even a tiny bit of reverence? A few moments of silence, even?
Maybe not. But hey, the 3 million people who celebrated Moscow City Day got to hear about their new People’s Palace.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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