Liberale/kritiske røster i det russiske samfunn frykter at Putin kan reagere på terroren ved å stramme til enda mer, særlig overfor mediene.
Det finnes fortsatt folk som våger å reise ubehagelige spørsmål, som menneskerettsombudet, Vladimir Lukin, som også spør: Var det russerne som stormet skolen?
“It doesn’t matter how many people were saved. Everything depends on the number killed and wounded,” said Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s commissioner for human rights. “It is also not clear how the denouement started. Did they storm the building?”
Mr Lukin, a former Russian ambassador to the US, said there were new worries about how the government would react.
“Fighting terrorism shouldn’t lead to state terrorism. We had that under Stalin. Some people fear this could lead to a more authoritarian form of government.”
Gennady Boft, deputy editor of Izvestia, said: “There will be a tightening of the government’s approach to the media.”
Both men were attending a high-level conference of Russian and foreign officials and analysts in the northern city of Novgorod.
Putin awaits verdict of volatile public
Experts fear for future of human rights
