Putin, Medvedev Bicker Over Blast

By Natalya Krainova

Channel One deputy head Kirill Kleimyonov,
left, speaking to Putin and channel director
Konstantin Ernst.

President Dmitry Medvedev took an indirect dig at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over the Domodedovo Airport blast, stating Thursday that officials should not speak of the attack as being "solved" yet — as Putin had done hours earlier.

Putin made his statement during a surprise visit to state-controlled Channel One television late Wednesday.

Asked by a program host, Kirill Kleimyonov, about any "clues" in the investigation of the last week's bombing, which killed 36, Putin said the investigation had progressed much further.

"Not 'clues.' We can take it that on the whole the case has been solved," the prime minister said, his web site reported.

Putin, who said he “dropped by” to congratulate the channel's head, Konstantin Ernst, on his birthday, also shared his views on terrorism, the Russian film industry, restrictions on air guns, and his own work schedule.

Medvedev said Thursday that it was "unacceptable when someone announces ahead of all investigative procedures and the indictment that a crime has been solved," Interfax reported.

You must "work, but not make publicity for yourself," Medvedev said during a meeting with Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov and Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin. He did not mention any names.

Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information, said Medvedev wanted to "prove that he is an independent politician" to prevent himself from becoming a "lame duck" ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.

"The active presidential campaign Putin has been conducting in the past year has attracted the attention of influence groups inside the country," Mukhin said.

This is not the first time Medvedev has indirectly rebuked Putin. In December, he spoke against Putin voicing his stance on jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky ahead of a court ruling. Khodorkovsky, whom Putin has called a criminal, was convicted shortly thereafter.

Bortnikov also told Medvedev during the Thursday meeting that the FSB has arrested several people who have information about the masterminds of the attack. He did not identify those detained, but said relatives of the suicide bomber who carried out the blast are also under suspicion.

The Investigative Committee announced Saturday that the suspected suicide bomber at Domodedovo was a 20-year-old male from the North Caucasus, but gave no further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Media reports said earlier that the blast could have been organized by the same terrorist group that unsuccessfully prepared an attack in downtown Moscow on New Year's Eve.

Five people were arrested and five more put on a federal wanted list in connection with the failed December blast, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said Saturday.

The committee identified the suspects, but denied the link between December's attack plot and the Domodedovo blast.

Ingush Islamists Target Alcohol Sellers

Reuters

A man pouring vodka in Nazran on Jan. 30. Several places were attacked last year for selling alcohol in the area.

NAZRAN, Ingushetia — A masked guard clad in camouflage pokes his AK-47 assault rifle into the shoulder of a vodka-guzzling client in a hotel bar in Ingushetia and orders him to leave immediately.

The state-employed security guard then leads the man and his coterie of quiet revelers out of the dimly lit bar.

No Fear of Flying or Investing

By Anatoly Medetsky, Irina Filatova and Khristina Narizhnaya

Although investigators say the recent suicide bombing of the arrivals hall of Domodedovo Airport targeted foreigners, Fatih Birol, chief economist at the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said he remained unfazed.

He said he was “not at all” afraid to fly in to Moscow for an international investment forum that opened Wednesday.

United Russia's Rating Drops

Reuters

If an election were held next Sunday, 35 percent of all Russians would vote for the party, 10 percentage points fewer than in December 2010, said independent polling center Levada.

Nearly a third of respondents said they did not know who they would vote for — if anyone at all. The poll was carried out among 1,600 adults across 130 towns on Jan. 21 to 24 and has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

4 Police Officials Fired Over Domodedovo Bombing

By Alexandra Odynova and Nikolaus von Twickel

U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle laying flowers at the site of the explosion at Domodedovo Airport on Wednesday.

President Dmitry Medvedev fired four police officials over the suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport that killed 35, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the attackers' trail probably did not lead back to Chechnya.

Islamist Wanted for Airport Blast: Report

Reuters

Monday's suicide attack in the arrivals hall of Moscow's Domodedovo airport bore the hallmarks of Islamist insurgents from the North Caucasus. No group has claimed responsibility, which left some 130 injured.

The daily Kommersant, citing unnamed security sources, said the wanted man was named Razdobudko and a resident of the Stavropol province, which borders on provinces of the North Caucasus inhabited by mostly Muslim non-Russian ethnic minorities.

Putin Pledges 'Inevitable Retribution'

By Nikolaus von Twickel and Natalya Krainova

People laying flowers at the site of the blast at Domodedovo Airport on Tuesday. Suspicions are centering on a obscure rebel group, Nogai Battalion.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday declared that "retribution is inevitable" against those who masterminded an airport suicide bombing that killed 35 people, including at least seven foreigners.

But Putin and other officials kept an official silence about who might have organized the attack, even as unidentified law enforcement sources told Russian news agencies that suspicions were centering on a obscure rebel group called Nogai Battalion.

NTV television showed a photograph of the severed head of what it called the suspected suicide bomber, a man aged 30 to 35 and of North Caucasus or Arab appearance.

Attack Puts Focus on Fuzzy Security

By Alexander Bratersky

But the security gap that allowed the bomber to enter the public waiting area of the airport's international arrivals hall lies with the transportation police, not with airport management or screening equipment like metal detectors and X-ray machines, security analysts said Tuesday.