Russian Union of Journalists to Commemorate French Attack Victims

The Russian Union of Journalists' chairman said that the organization will hold a minute of silence Thursday in memory of those who died on January 7 in the Paris terrorist attack.

MOSCOW, January 15 (Sputnik) — The Russian Union of Journalists will hold a minute of silence Thursday in memory of those who died on January 7 in the Paris terrorist attack, the organization's chairman Vsevolod Bogdanov told RIA Novosti.

"There will be a minute of silence, and then we will talk about grief and about courage and about tolerance and about how we should treat each other," Bogdanov told the news agency.

Last week’s attacks in the French capital, targeting the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket, claimed the lives of 17 people. All three gunmen, the first two reportedly trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen and the third a purported supporter of Islamic State, were killed in two separate police raids.

Shortly before the attack, Charlie Hebdo posted a caricature of the IS leader on its Twitter page. Known for its cartoons lampooning political and religious figures, among them the Prophet Muhammad, the magazine received threats previously from radical Islamists.

On January 11, more than three million people took to the streets in cities across France to participate in a unity march in support of the magazine, free speech and to commemorate the dead.