Putin blames Crimea school massacre on the globalization of an American trend

A woman cries during a church service for the victims of the college attack in Kerch, Crimea, on Oct. 18, 2018. (AFP)

• An 18-year-old student went on a rampage at the school on the Crimean Peninsula, killing 19 people and wounding more than 50 others before killing himself
• The school attack in Kerch was the greatest loss of life in school violence in Russia since the Beslan attack, in which 333 people were killed

SOCHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the mass school shooting in Crimea a day before was the result of "globalization" and the continuation of an American trend.
"It's a result of globalisation. On social media, on the internet, we see that there is a whole community that has been created. Everything started with the tragic events in schools in the US," he said at a forum in Sochi.
He said unstable young people were creating "fake heroes for themselves" and "reaching out for a surrogate for heroism" in the absence of the real thing.
"We're not creating healthy (internet) content for young people... which leads to tragedies of this kind," he said.
"But there is a place for real heroism in today's life," he said.
An 18-year-old identified as Vladislav Roslyakov on Wednesday killed at least 20 students at a college in the Moscow-annexed peninsula before killing himself.
More than 40 others were injured in what local press dubbed "Russia's Columbine", a reference to a 1999 US high school massacre.
Authorities said they were working to establish the motive for the attack.
An ex-girlfriend told Russian state media Roslyakov had spoken to her about taking revenge for bullying at the school.
At least 10 of the wounded will be airlifted to hospitals in Russia, the health minister said Thursday.
Wednesday’s attack in the city of Kerch was by far the worst by a student in Russia, raising questions about school security in the country. The Kerch Polytechnic College had only a front desk with no security guards.
Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told Russian news agencies on Thursday that authorities were preparing to airlift at least 10 people with severe injuries to top Russian hospitals for surgery. Dozens more remain hospitalized in Kerch.
Most of the people killed died from gunshot wounds, and those who ended up hospitalized have injuries from a blast from an improvised explosive device that was packed with shrapnel.
“The kids’ muscles have been ‘minced’ with small metal objects,” Skvortsova said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency. “Those who have their organs ripped apart, we are finding metal balls in kidneys, intestines, in blood vessels. That is how powerful the blast was.”
Kremlin-appointed Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov told Russian news agencies that the first victim will be buried later Thursday.
The school attack in Kerch was the greatest loss of life in school violence in Russia since the Beslan attack by Chechen separatists in 2004, in which 333 people were killed during a three-day siege, many of them children, and hundreds were wounded.