See what Moscow attack suspects looked like when they arrived at court

Well. CNN's Clare Sebastian has reported extensively from Russia and joins us now from London Claire. What more are you learning about those four suspects who appeared in court? Yeah, and so far, according to state media, said to be from Tajikistan, essentially migrant workers. And on the one hand, this sets up a relatively delicate situation for Russia. They rely on migrant workers. It's an important part of the workforce, especially now at a time of critical labor shortages, which are hamperin

g its efforts to sort of ramp up the war economy so they will not want to deter migrant workers from coming. In the wake of this, the second thing is, of course, that they did will arrive, as you say, in various states of injury one with a bandage inside of his head, another in a wheelchair and unresponsive. And we see this video that's been released by Russia's investigative committee showing them being sort of forcibly marched into that Moscow courthouse. The security apparatus is now attempti

ng to show that it's getting tough, that it's in control of this situation, obviously, amid questions over why this huge terror attack, the biggest in Russia in over two decades, was missed. I think one more point to make about this legal process is that there are already signs that it may not play out in a climate of full transparency. The press were not allowed to listen to the entirety of these hearings on Sunday. So the suspects have now been held in pretrial detention for a period of at lea

st two months. We know that precedent would suggest that pretrial detention in Russia can be a lot longer than that. But I think that there's a chance that we will not be able to witness all of how these trials play out. And, Glenn, there are questions being raised inside Russia and why the massive state security apparatus failed to stop this attack. Yeah, there are. Look, I think it's not clear at this point how much the average Russian is starting to question this. Obviously, President Putin h

as come out and said that there might be a Ukrainian link and the security services are attempting to look in control. But certainly we hear from the Russian opposition. The head of Navalny's anti-corruption agency avenged one of saying that this was a result, he said, of the catastrophic incompetence of our special services. He also points out the Russians have spent years being told that their rights are being eroded for this purpose to increase their security, to prevent terrorism. And now th

is, he says, accusing the FSB of spending more time surveilling citizens and jailing opposition leaders than actually working on real threats. And of course, you have the irony, which some are pointing out, that these four suspects are facing terror charges, which, of course, Navalny was also facing in Russia's extremist and terrorist list, is populated now with opposition leaders and writers and people who oppose the war. So the Russian state is facing questions. Obviously, we don't know, as I

said, what the average Russian feels at this point. There is a sense of shock and outpouring of grief. But what we do see is a clear effort from the Russian state, the security apparatus and the sort of information, the propaganda, trying to prevent this from becoming a political problem for Putin. Sebastian in London, many thanks. This morning, four men accused of killing at least 137 people at a concert hall outside Moscow are facing terrorism charges. It was Russia's worst terrorist attack in

decades. The suspect appears in court. They are visibly beaten up and injured, one seemingly missing an eye. Joining me now, a CNN contributor, former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty. Jill, it's so nice to see you. You know, one of the things that struck me here is that Russia, the United States, you know, sworn enemies at this point. And yet the U.S. says it warned Russia that a potential terrorist attack would take place. What is this relationship like when it comes to intelligence? Ho

w does that work? Well, the United States says it had a duty to inform. And so regardless of what the country is, it will inform if it understands that some type of terrorist attack is going to take place. And the U.S. says that's exactly what they did with Russia now, and they say they did it directly. So this presents a real problem for Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, because right now they're trying to explain how this happened and then avoid blame for Vladimir Putin. And that is not easy. An

d that's why I think you're seeing a lot of kind of, you know, messaging and unclear obfuscation, etc. essentially what they're saying is we don't have any communication with the Kremlin, don't have any communication with the West or the Westerners. However, maybe our security services do. But the whole thing is, did Vladimir Putin ignore this warning? We know that he on the record said he called it blackmail and an attempt to undermine Russia. So it's a real problem for the Kremlin. I was going

to ask you what you think it might do to his narrative with the people of Russia that he was unable to safeguard the country. And there was a warning in place Yeah, I think that that is really the question, because this is not the first time that there have been attacks that that have really been brutal over the years in the 24 years with Putin. And there really have been a lot of attacks. And each time there was, I would say, an undercurrent of people feeling that they were unprepared affected

, that the government simply couldn't take care of them. And now here you have Vladimir Putin just days ago, a week ago, being reelected to a fifth term And this happens. So that undermines, I think, the idea among Russians that he really is their protector. That said, the Kremlin is going to try to very quickly, you know, veer it off in another direction thanks to state media and propaganda and say, well, you know, it's just part of international terrorism. And we should cooperate. But they're

not cooperating with us because of the war in Ukraine. And a lot of this obviously is in the context of the war against Ukraine. I wanted to ask you about that. Russia is still trying to link this attack to Ukraine while also saying that these four men are from Tajikistan. And at the same time, they're hammering Ukraine with strikes. I mean, could this propaganda work to its people? Because certainly it is not going to work with the international community I think Vice President Kamala Harris wa

s asked whether or not the United States thinks Ukraine had any role in it. She flatly said no. This is ISIS k You know, I think that it could, Sarah, because after all, you know, for average Russians, they are watching TV and on TV, there is no opposition media whatsoever. It's all they know, the state messaging and propaganda. And so if they feel and they're already set up for this by Russian propaganda, that the West is against them and Ukraine is just a pawn of the United States and NATO, et

c., they could believe that. I think, you know, when in a situation like this, which is truly traumatizing, this is just a horrendous attack that people want to understand it. And the fear that's being generated right now and the propaganda might come together to convince people, you know, well, it's we have to stand by our president because after all, we're under attack. All right. I do want to ask you about the four accused terrorist who Russia says are from Tajikistan. They were severely beat

en at some point. One person looked like they're missing an eye. One came out with a plastic bag sort of over his head. There's video of this. How does this play in the Russian public that these men may have been beaten and tortured by Russia's law? Enforcement apparatus I think they'll probably look at it with two different viewpoints. One is those guys were terrorists. They deserve everything they got. And then the other side of it is the brutality. I'm not saying this. You know, we have to se

e the proof, but the brutality of Russian security forces, not only for terrorists, but for actually opposition people who have come on the streets against the war in Ukraine. We've seen the video of people being beaten and dragged off. So it's hard, I think, for Russians to really accept all of this. It's very frightening to think that you are alone. But I can tell you, I've seen on social media comments exactly like that. We have no one to protect us. It's a terrible situation for some Russian

s. And there have been thousands of people going out and laying flowers. A lot of sorrow in Russia after 137 people killed in that terror attack. Jill Dougherty, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much for coming on.