The Petersburg Metro. СС-BY-SA-2.0: sbamueller / Flickr. Some rights reserved.Dozens of casualties, an unprecedented collapse of the city’s public transport system and arrests of people of “non-Slavic appearance” — these are the obvious consequences of the Petersburg metro attack on 3 April.
But the solidarity and readiness to help which Petersburgers demonstrated during and after the attack reminded many of them that our lives and fates are in our own hands. Indeed, locals did not succumb to panic, and have continued their open criticism of the authorities’ actions after the attack — they’ve even continued to hold protests and refused to put up with pressure from above. For the authorities, this is an unpleasant reminder that our citizens are capable of determining their own lives without them.
Whether this independent feeling will grow into a rallying cry will become clear soon enough.
