News

A mourning day was announced today in Moscow - in memory of the casualties of the terror acts committed at Lubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations. All the flags are half-mast in the capital, and all entertainment events are cancelled. Television and radio channels have corrected their programmes. Requiem services will be held in all temples. The death roll of yesterday's explosions is 39 persons by now. The authorities promise to find and punish the organizers of the crimes.

Photos of the two women-terrorists, who blew themselves up in Moscow metro, and of their three helpers have been widespread among Moscow interior departments and divisions, a source from law enforcement bodies of Russian capital said today. The major work will be at transport stations: militiamen will check all the bus stops, where buses arrive from the republics of Northern Caucasus, Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, and Rostov and Volgograd Regions.

In the evening on March 29, in the Lubyanka Square, near the Mayakovsky Museum, an action in memory of victims of March 29 metro explosions took place. It was organized by an initiative group of citizens. As reported by Anton Dolidyonok, one of the organizers, the idea to commemorate the casualties appeared about the afternoon. They bought candles, printed out photos of the tragedy from the Internet, and placed an announcement in their blogs. Internet-users are not just condoling with casualties' relatives and victims, but also discuss the topic of responsibility for the committed terror acts.

Residents of Russia's southern regions feel scared by March 29 terror acts in Moscow metro. The sources of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondents were representatives of different layers of the population; they condoled with casualties' relatives, while the authorities of the regions strengthen security measures in public places.

The Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan has announced detention of a group of persons, who had forwarded from Georgia to Azerbaijan for committing terror acts there "a large amount of firearms, weapon components, ammunition, explosives and appliances." There is a citizen of Russia among the detainees.

After the explosions in Moscow metro, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has stated the need to get back to the problems of executing justice under the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation dealing with terrorism; and the Council of Federation started talking about introduction of death penalty for the organization and committing terror acts.

The Investigatory Department (ID) of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office) of Russia for the Krasnodar Territory has concluded that the actions of Sergey Kucheruk, head of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department), accused by ex-major Alexei Dymovskiy of slander, have no crime attributes.

Today, in Ergneti village, on the border with South Ossetia, Georgia has handed over three prisoners to the officers of the frontier service of the South Ossetia's KGB.

The morning explosions on March 29 in Moscow metro, where dozens were killed or injured, may provoke another outbreak of anti-Caucasian moods in the Russian society and lead to persecutions of Caucasian natives in Moscow and other major Russian cities. Many residents of Chechnya think so. A number of local experts believe that the explosions in Moscow metro could be backed both by militants and "certain forces in Russia."

The version that murdering innocent people, absolutely occasional metro passengers, is a revenge for liquidation of militants' leaders in the Caucasus is not true, as Geidar Djemal, leader of the Islamic Committee, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The two explosions committed today in the morning in the Moscow metro have caused a huge public resonance. Leaders of dozens of countries of the world, heads of European institutes of democracy, representatives of international and religious organizations have expressed their condemnation of terrorism and condolences to casualties' families.

In 2008, Georgian bureaucrats imported weapons into Georgia from Israel under a corruption scheme. Last week, this statement was made by a representative of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Prime Minister of Dagestan Rizvan Kurbanov has promised, when speaking to activists of the human rights NGO "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", to help them in their searched of the young people who had disappeared in the republic. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from Svetlana Isaeva, chair of the "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights".

As reported by Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of the acting OSCE Chairman, in 2009, 19 persons perished in the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

On Sunday, March 28, a woman called the Moscow militia and said that an explosion may happen in the metro prepared by residents of Chechnya. Employees of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) with dogs searched the Konkovo metro station but found nothing.

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili has signed a resolution about a large-scale pardoning of convicts. This was stated by Giya Arsenishvili, chairman of the parliamentary committee for human rights. It is planned to pardon the prisoners who serve their terms for medium- and light-gravity crimes.

The NGO named "Memorial-Avia" and active in North Ossetia continues searching relatives of the military pilots who perished during the Great Patriotic War (WWII) in fight for the Caucasus.

Today, the defendants in the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005 in Nalchik again disrupted the session by rejecting an advocate replacement.

So far, nobody has taken responsibility for today's explosions in Moscow metro; however, power agencies tend to believe that they were organized by Chechen militants, whose leader Dokku Umarov announced this February that the military action zone would expand over the whole Russia's territory. Umarov stated then that the war would return into Russians' houses; and they would see it not only on TV as reported from somewhere away in the Caucasus. The State Duma believes that it is already the case; and new, more efficient forms and methods of fighting terror should be searched for.

Two brothers, residents of the Chechen city of Shali, were kidnapped by local power agents. Their fate and whereabouts are unknown. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from an activist of a local NGO, who referred to brothers' relatives.