Russian President Vladimir Putin sometimes spends time praying in a small church in the Kremlin's Senate Palace. During the terrorist attack at the Dubrovka theater center in 2002, the president first knelt before God in prayer, he admitted in an interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin.
Putin said that he came to pray “precisely” to this” church in the Kremlin's Senate Palace. “Then, during the Nord-Ost crisis, I fell to my knees for the first time in my life,” the head of state admitted.
In response to the question of how often he resorts to prayer, Putin noted: “The Russian person and the Russian people have some differences from, say, Western society. We think more about something eternal, about something boundless, about something higher. And even atheists believe in this.“ “I also have this inner need.“ “But it is probably not worth listing all these reasons“, he added.
On the evening of October 23, 2002, 40 terrorists stormed the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka in Moscow, taking 912 participants and spectators of the musical “Nord-Ost“ hostage. Early in the morning of October 26, most of the hostages were released as a result of a special operation. The attack killed 130 people, including 10 children.