Was Russia right to torture the Moscow attackers?

The court appearance of the four men accused by Russia of carrying out the Moscow massacre of 137 innocent concert goers at the Crocus City Hall venue told its own grim story. All the suspects bore marks of torture: one was wearing a bandage on his ear, following reports that it may have been at least partially severed and forcibly fed to him during his interrogation; another was semi-conscious and appeared to be missing an eye. Meanwhile, a video did the rounds seemingly showing one of the men’s genitals hooked up to an electricity generator. 

The footage of the battered men was shocking to tender western eyes, but hardly surprising: Putin’s security forces owe more to the inherited interrogation methods of Beria and Yezhov than they do to Dixon of Dock Green. The rough handling of the men charged with carrying out one of the worst terrorist atrocities of modern times was met with widespread public approval in Russia.

Although Russia officially abolished the death penalty in 1996, the accused Tajik terrorist suspects will almost certainly share the fate of Alexei Navalny if they are convicted and sent to the Gulag.