'Je Suis Charlie' Marches Honor Paris Victims

On Wednesday, Jan. 7, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi stormed the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly newspaper based in downtown Paris, killing 12 people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists. They claimed they were "avenging" the Prophet Muhammad, who had been depicted — at times unflatteringly — in Charlie Hebdo's pages.



Two days later, Amedy Coulibaly, who while in prison had become acquainted brothers, toowith one of the Kouachi brothersk hostages by gunpoint in a kosher grocery store by Paris' Porte de Vincennes. Four of the hostages were killed.



The sequence of tragic events in the City of Light have rattled France and cast a shadow over its national ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. A bloody attack on freedom of expression in the heart the French capital sparked waves of international sympathy from around the world, including from Russia.



Dozens of Muscovites have gathered in front of the French Embassy in the days that have passed since the attack, holding up signs of support reading "Je suis Charlie." Supporters have laid flowers by the embassy's gates, interspersed with candles and messages of sympathy. Moscow's French community also conducted its own solidarity march on Sunday, held simultaneously with the much larger scale march in Paris, which Agence France-Presse estimates attracted a turnout of some 1.5 million.