Islam Khalilov, 15, was working the evening of the attack that killed 143 people at Russia's Crocus City hall on Friday, March 22. He saved a group of around a hundred people by leading them to an open emergency exit. Islam is a well-spoken man and spoke modestly about his role. But it's above all his evocative first name and his origin – Kyrgyz – that appeal to the official media. The young man isn't the only hero of that night, but the Russian state media are infatuated with him.

His exposure has increased over the past few days, meeting a need in Russian society to stem the tide of anti-migrant and anti-Islamic sentiment seen in the country over the past week. It's a wave that the authorities themselves have sometimes helped to fuel. The Kremlin shared a video on Thursday, March 28, in which President Vladimir Putin, meeting military personnel, seemed to slip confide in them. "When I hear that Russia must be only for Russians, a feeling of anxiety rises in me."

These words – "Russia for Russians" ("Russians" in the ethnic sense of the word) – had been heard the day before in the Moscow metro, where a woman from Yakutia filmed her attack by ultranationalists, one of whom made a Nazi salute. The incident was just one of many since it emerged that the Crocus City Hall terrorists and their accomplices, affiliated to the Islamic State Khorasan Province organization, were all from Central Asia – seven Tajiks and one Kyrgyz – most of them settled in Russia.

Assaults, brawls and outpourings of hatred on social media: the signs of tension are there for all to see, and the attack has reawakened – or brought to light – deep-rooted xenophobic feelings in some sections of the population. For example, there has been an increase in "Slav-only" advertisements in the real estate and job markets. The practice is commonplace in Russia and resolutely opposed by the authorities. Cab drivers from Central Asia are also seeing their fares canceled.

This is despite the government's desire to direct attention – and hatred – toward Ukraine and the West, accused of being the "real masterminds" of the attack. On Wednesday, the daily Argumenty i Fakty proposed on its cover that the alleged perpetrators – Macron, Biden, Scholz and Zelensky – should be sent to "burn in hell." The Investigative Committee further supported this version of events, which said on Thursday that "work with the detained terrorists, examination of the technical devices seized from them and analysis of information on financial transactions have made it possible to obtain evidence of their links with Ukrainian nationalists."

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