Doku Umarov Vows 'Year of Tears'

By Alexandra Odynova

An undated still image from a video showing rebel Doku Umarov, center.

Notorious insurgent supremo Doku Umarov promised Russia a “year of blood and tears,” saying he has at his disposal 50 to 60 suicide bombers ready to strike, but stopping short of claiming responsibility for last month's Domodedovo Airport blast.

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.

12 Killed in 1999 Moscow Blast Remain Unidentified

By Natalya Krainova

The unidentified victims died when a powerful explosion ripped through a nine-story apartment building on Ulitsa Guryanova in southeastern Moscow in September 1999, killing 100 people. The blast was one of several that destroyed apartment buildings in Russian cities that month, prompting the start of the second Chechen conflict.

Ninety-six body fragments belonging to the 12 slain people remain at the city's Lianozovo morgue, said Tatyana Karpova, head of Nord Ost, a group that supports victims of terrorist attacks.

'Chechen Rebel's Brother' Held in Italy

By Alexandra Odynova

Ruslan Umarov, 35, came to Venice from France on a Eurostar train Saturday, seeking asylum in the country, news reports said.

The man, who carried a French passport, was detained on a tip from French intelligence and placed in a center for illegal immigrants in the town of Gradisca d'Isonzo in northeastern Italy's Gorizia province, Il Piccolo newspaper reported on its web site.

Airport Attack Suspect Sought

By Natalya Krainova

Medvedev descending an escalator
Thursday in the Okhotny Ryad metro.

Investigators on Thursday released a first photo of a suspect in this week's airport bombing, a man whom they said belonged to the Stavropol-based rebel group Nogai Jamaat, as President Dmitry Medvedev inspected new security measures in the Moscow metro.

The suspect, Vitaly Razdobudko, 32, is suspected of organizing the suicide blast at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport on Monday that killed 35 people and injured scores, and he has been placed on a national wanted list together with “about 10” other people, officials said.

The Interior Ministry released a Stavropol police mug shot of Razdobudko that shows a bearded young man with close-cropped dark hair staring sullenly at the camera.

The remains of the suspected airport bomber do not resemble Razdobudko, Interfax reported, citing a source close to the investigation.

Razdobudko is a Russian-born adherent of the fundamentalist Wahhabi branch of Islam, which is popular among terrorists, a law enforcement source told RIA-Novosti.

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.

Briton Slain in Airport Was to Get Married

By Roland Oliphant

Gordon Cousland, 39, visited Russia
regularly as a property consultant.

A Briton killed in the bombing at Domodedovo Airport was a regular visitor to Russia who was looking forward to getting married in the spring and raising his infant daughter, his brother said Tuesday.

Gordon Cousland, 39, was a property consultant with CACI, a British marketing and IT consultancy, and one of 35 people killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the airport's international arrivals hall Monday.

It was the first time that Western expatriates have been killed in a terrorist attack in Moscow since the Dubrovka theater siege in 2002.

Cousland is survived by a 6-month-old daughter and was due to marry in April, his older brother Robin said by telephone from the family farm in Lincolnshire, east England.

Kvachkov in Jail for Crossbow Coup

By Alexander Bratersky

Kvachkov attending a nationalist march Nov. 4, 2008. He is accused of plotting an uprising with crossbows.

The Moscow City Court on Monday approved the arrest of retired colonel and ultranationalist icon Vladimir Kvachkov, 62, held on suspicion of preparing an armed coup with crossbows.

Kvachkov's lawyer Andrei Pershin said by telephone that he believed that the arrest of his client was revenge from Rusnano chief Anatoly Chubais, whom Kvachkov was twice acquitted of trying to kill.

Killers Target Healers and Soothsayers

By Nikolaus von Twickel

Two gunmen in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, killed a woman engaged in fortunetelling, alternative medical practices and lifting magic spells, Interfax reported.

'Terrorist' Senator Gets Life Sentence

By Natalya Krainova

The court convicted Izmestyev of terrorism and multiple murders, saying he was an organizer of the so-called Kingisepp gang, a criminal group formed in 1992.

'Terrorist' Senator Jailed for Life

By Natalya Krainova

The court convicted Izmestyev of terrorism and multiple murders, saying he was an organizer of the so-called Kingisepp gang, a criminal group formed in 1992.

Most of his 12 co-defendants, some of whom are already serving sentences for various crimes as part of the gang, were also handed prison terms Tuesday, Gazeta.ru reported.