First a school, and now a cathedral.
A mere six days ago, Moscow suffered a rare (for Russia) school shooting. On February 3, at the
Moscow School #263, a student killed a teacher and police officer.
Now from the eastern Russian island of Sakhalin comes news of a gunman opening fire inside a cathedral, killing a nun and a churchgoer. Six other people were wounded in the incident - most shot in the legs and were not critically hurt.
The suspect is said to be a employee, 24, at a private security firm and was a security guard at the church. He was detained at the scene in the main city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Marina Petrovskaya tweets me: "They told that he had Nazi symbols on [his] clothing."
Media accounts were quick to point out that there was no apparent link to the Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi about 4,700 miles (7,500 km) to the west.
The Investigative Committee - Russia's main federal investigating authority - said psychiatrists would try to determine the suspect's mental condition. Reuters quoted the regional leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Tikhon, as saying a prayer service would be held at the cathedral later on Sunday.
The name of the island has an intriguing translation. The Russian name Saharin has the spelling Saghalien in historical texts. The European names derive from misinterpretation of a Manchu name sahaliyan ula angga hada ("peak/craggy rock at the mouth of the Amur River"). Sahaliyan, the word that has been borrowed in the form of "Sakhalin", means "black" in Manchu and is the proper Manchu name of the Amur River (sahaliyan ula, literally means "Black River").
Among the indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Ainu on the southern half, the Oroks in the central region and the Nivkhs on the northern part. Despite a long history tied to Asian roots - Chinese and Japanese - in August 1945, according to Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. This Russian presence continues today.
Recent history has seen Sakhalin drawn into international conflicts, from the rivalry between Japan and Russia, over which country should have the most influence on this island and others, to an incident in 1983.
On September 1, 1983, the Korean Air Flight 007, a South Korean civilian airliner, flew over Sakhalin and was shot down by the Soviet Union, just west of Sakhalin Island, near the smaller Moneron Island; the Soviet Union claimed it was a spy plane. All 269 passengers and crew died, including a U.S. Congressman, Larry McDonald.
It has not been lost on synchromystic researchers that the flight was numbered...007.
