top line
A Russian gunman wearing a red swastika shirt killed at least 13 people, including six adults and seven children, and wounded 21 at a school in central Russia on Monday, according to Russian officials.
key facts
Russian officials said 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev used two pistols to carry out the shooting at School No. 88 in Izhevsk, a city 600 miles east of Moscow, according to the Associated Press.
Kazantsev had attended the school himself and had committed suicide after the shooting, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.
The commission said that among the dead were teachers, children and security guards. Local reports indicate that the gunman, who was dressed in Nazi symbols, a baklava and black clothes, shot the school’s security guard before entering the school and shooting the children.
Two handguns near his body contained cords braided with the words Columbine, Dylan, and Eric, an apparent reference to the 1999 Columbine School shooting in which 13 people were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, according to Washington Post.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, called the massacre an “inhuman terrorist attack”.
main background
School No. 88 educates children from elementary school through high school, according to multiple outlets. According to the Russian National Guard, the gunman acquired his weapons illegally. Investigators said they were searching the gunman’s home and studying his “neo-fascist views and Nazi ideology”. Peskov told reporters that the gunman most likely belonged to a neo-Nazi organization or group, according to CBS News. The shooting comes two years after a massacre at a school in Kazan in May 2021 that left nine dead and 23 wounded. according to The New York Times.
the shadow
The shooting comes amid a surge in seemingly unrelated incidents of violence across the country following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of partial military conscription. One man set himself on fire in protest of the announcement, while another man, angry at his friend’s recruitment, shot a Russian recruitment officer at a recruitment center in Siberia. More than a thousand people have been arrested for protesting Putin’s orders across the country.
in-depth reading
At least 13 dead and 21 wounded in school shooting in Russia (Washington Post)
13 dead, 21 injured in school shooting in Russia (CNBC)
