The State Hermitage Museum has ramped up security following a terrorist bombing in the city’s metro on Monday 3 April that killed 14 people and injured over 70. “All visitors are being inspected, which surely might cause inconvenience for the museum’s guests,” the museum said in a statement posted on its website and Facebook page on Tuesday.
The Hermitage also said it had reached an agreement with Rosgvardia, the new National Guard created by President Vladimir Putin in 2016, to strengthen security at the museum. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the general director of the Hermitage, said that state-funded guards would be restored after cut backs were made at museums across Russia in 2015 due to budget shortfalls.
But while smaller, independent venues have been targeted by right-wing vandals over the past year, major institutions like the Hermitage have largely remained safe. In a report on its website in October 2016, the museum said that it had dealt with nearly 20 false alarms from 1 August to 30 September due to unattended bags, packages and prams.
