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AFP – Firefighters and rescuers gather outside Moscow's Domodedovo international airport. A suicide bomber …
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press Nataliya Vasilyeva, Associated Press – Mon Jan 24, 6:40 pm ET
MOSCOW – Terrorists struck again in the heart of Russia, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up Monday in Moscow's busiest airport and turning its international arrivals terminal into a smoky, blood-spattered hall of dismembered bodies, screaming survivors and abandoned suitcases. At least 35 people were killed, including two British travelers.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast at Domodedovo Airport that also wounded 180 people, although Islamic militants in the southern Russian region of Chechnya have been blamed for previous attacks in Moscow, including a double suicide bombing on the capital's subway system in March 2010 that resulted in 40 deaths.
The Interfax news agency said the head of the suspected bomber had been found.
President Dmitry Medvedev called it a terrorist attack and immediately tightened security at Moscow's two other commercial airports and other key transportation facilities.
It was the second time in seven years that Domodedovo was involved in a terrorist attack: In 2004, two female suicide bombers penetrated the lax security there, illegally bought tickets from airport personnel and boarded planes that exploded in flight and killed 90 people.
Medvedev canceled plans to travel Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he aimed to promote Russia as a profitable investment haven to world business leaders.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the health minister to send her deputies to hospitals to make sure the injured were getting the medical care they needed.
Click image to see photos of from the blast scene
AFP/NTV
Russians still look to the tough-talking Putin as the leader they trust to guarantee their security, and Monday's attack was likely to strengthen the position of the security forces that form part of his base.
Large-scale battles in Chechnya ended years ago, following two devastating wars that Russia waged with the republic's separatists, but Islamic militants have continued to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks. Most have been in Chechnya and other predominantly Muslim provinces in the southern Caucasus region, but some have targeted Moscow, including its subways, trains and even a theater.
In Washington, President Barack Obama condemned the "outrageous act of terrorism" and offered any assistance. Those comments were echoed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who spoke with Medvedev and assured him of his complete support.
Monday's attack was most likely carried out by a suicide bomber and "attempts were being made to identify him," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, adding that the attacker appeared to have been wearing the explosives on a belt.
The blast came at 4:32 p.m., when hundreds of passengers and workers were in a loosely guarded part of the terminal. They were sprayed with shrapnel of screws and ball bearings, intended to cause as many casualties as possible.
The terminal filled with thick smoke as witnesses described a scene of horror.
"There was lots of blood, severed legs flying around," said Yelena Zatserkovnaya, a Lufthansa official.
Airport workers turned baggage carts into makeshift stretchers to wheel the wounded to ambulances outside, she said.
Amateur video showed a pile of bodies on the floor, with other dead scattered around. Luggage also was strewn around the terminal and several small fires burned. A dazed man in a suit pushed a baggage cart through the haze.
Driver Artyom Zhilenkov said he was standing just a few yards (meters) away from a man who may have been the suicide bomber. He saw an explosion on or near the man, whose suitcase was on fire.
Zhilenkov said he initially thought he himself had been injured, but doctors said he was just coated in the blood of others.
"
The guy standing next to me was torn to pieces," he said.
Car rental agent Alexei Spiridonov, 25, was at his desk when the blast struck about 100 yards (meters) away and "threw me against the wall," he said.
"People were panicking, rushing out of the hall or looking for their relatives. There were people just lying in blood," Spiridonov said.
Sergei Lavochkin, who was waiting for a friend to arrive from Cuba, told Rossiya 24 television: "I heard a loud bang, saw plastic panels falling down from the ceiling and heard people screaming. Then people started running away."
The Emergencies Ministry said 35 people were killed, 86 hospitalized with injuries and 94 were given medical treatment. Among the dead were two British travelers, Markin said.
Domodedovo was briefly closed to air traffic immediately after the blast, but soon reopened. Hours later, passengers arriving for their flights lined up outside waiting to pass through metal detectors that had been installed at the entrances.
Aviation security experts have been warning since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that the crowds at many airports present tempting targets to suicide bombers. Arrivals halls are usually open to anyone.
"Airports are by their nature crowded places, with meeters, greeters, commercial businesses, and so on," said Philip Baum, the editor of Aviation Security International, a London-based publication.
The attack also called into question Russia's ability to safely host major international events like the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 World Cup.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter was in St. Petersburg over the weekend to formally award Russia the 2018 World Cup. Prior to the signing, Blatter told Putin that he was certain FIFA had made the right choice.
Built in 1964, Domodedovo is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) southeast of Moscow and is the largest of the three major airports that serve the capital, handling more than 22 million people last year. It is generally regarded as Moscow's most modern airport, but its security has been called into question.
The airport insists security is one of its top priorities, saying on its website that its "cutting-edge operations technology guarantees the safety of passengers' and guests' lives."
It says 77 airlines offer regular flights to Domodedovo, serving 241 international and national routes.
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AP writers Lynn Berry, Vladimir Isachenkov and David Nowak in Moscow contributed to this report.
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SNAP ANALYSIS-Airport attack hits Kremlin at home, abroad24 Jan 2011
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Bombing undermines stability as elections approach
* Chilling message in blast at Russia's window on world
By Steve Gutterman
MOSCOW, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A bomb attack on Russia's busiest airport on Monday is a blow to the ruling 'tandem' of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, clouding efforts to lure foreign investment and ensure security in an election year.
The suicide blast, which killed at least 35 people and injured about 150, underscores Putin's failure to put a stop to insurgency after more than a decade in power. [ID:nLDE70N1JG]
It prompted Medvedev to postpone his departure for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he is to pitch Russia as an investment destination in hopes of attracting more cash to modernise the energy-reliant economy.
Medvedev vowed to find and punish those responsible, in twitter comments less than two hours after the explosion tore through the international arrivals hall. Police said they were stepping up security.
Those promises will ring hollow for many in a nation plagued by an Islamist insurgency in the impoverished North Caucasus. Kremlin critics say the campaign is fueled by corruption and lawlessness that also helps militants slip through the cracks of law enforcement.
The blast at Domodedovo airport came less than a year after two female suicide bombers from the North Caucasus region of Dagestan set off explosives in Moscow's subway during the morning rush hour on March 29, killing 40 people.
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It eerily echoed attacks in 2004 -- days before the school hostage tragedy in the North Caucasus, Christian-majority town of Beslan -- when bombers bribed their way onto two flights from Domodedovo and set off explosives, downing both planes and killing 90 people.
"The strategy to deal with the root causes of the attacks has failed so far and the security services have failed to dent the militant operations," Matthew Clements, Eurasia at IHS Jane's Information Group in London, told Reuters.
In recent years, "the militants operating in the North Caucasus have increased the scope of operations in the North Caucasus itself and they have expanded it into 'mainland' Russia," he said.
Clements saw no direct link with parliamentary elections late this year and a 2012 presidential vote, but he said there was "a heightened risk of further attacks against high-profile targets in Russia and public areas of Moscow and other cities."
It would take more persistent mayhem to derail the ruling United Russia party, which is expected to maintain its dominance of parliament in the December vote, let alone keeping Putin's chosen candidate out of the Kremlin in the March 2012 vote.
"MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TEARS"
Putin, who vaulted into the presidency after leading the country into a second devastating war against Chechen rebels in Chechnya in 1999, is widely expected to return to the Kremlin in 2012 or endorse Medvedev for a second term.
But the blast could undermine public confidence in both Russian leaders, who have struggled in recent months with summer wildfires and acrid smoke that killed hundreds and unprecedented racist violence in which ultranationalists targeted minorities, mostly Muslims.
Glen Howard, president of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank, said it would "further exacerbate the tensions created by the right-wing demonstrations in Moscow."
Financial analysts pointed out that investors in Russia, like its everyday citizens, are inured(To habituate to something undesirable, especially by prolonged subjection; accustom:) to terrorist attacks and that its markets have rebounded quickly from previous attacks.
"Moscow does not believe in tears," said John Winsell Davies, lead fund manager at Wermuth Asset Management -- citing a Soviet movie title that has come to symbolise the hardened attitude of many Russians and investors in the country.
"I don't think any major investor will be deterred by a bomb attack from investing in any major Russian company," said Zsolt Papp, of UBP Asset Management in Zurich.
"Russia is politically a stable country, remarkably stable, ... and other factors such as the oil price play a much bigger role," he said.
But the blast is a fresh blow to Russia's image abroad, darkened in recent weeks by a new six-year prison sentence for long-jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Medvedev seems unlikely to completely call off his trip to Davos, where his top economic aide said his main message would be that Russia's door is open to foreign investment.
Television footage from a smoke-choked Domodedovo in the aftermath of the blast sent a starkly different message: enter at your own risk.
Once a chaotic and dilapidated place with the grit of a Soviet train station, Domodedovo is a renovated Russian window on the world, serving scores of foreign airlines.
Germany's Lufthansa
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.Europe
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 12:08:00 AM CET
Putin vows revenge for Moscow airport bombing
Photo: AP
MOSCOW (AP) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has vowed revenge for the suicide bombing that killed 35 people at a Moscow airport — a familiar tough-on-terrorism stance that has underpinned his power but also led to a rising number of deadly attacks in Russia.
Lax security also was blamed for Monday's explosion in the international arrivals area of Domodedovo Airport that also injured 180 people, with President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday criticizing police and managers at the airport, the largest of three that serve the capital.
NTV television showed a photograph of what it said was the detached head of the suspected bomber. Investigators have said that DNA testing will be necessary before the man, who appears to be in his 30s, can be identified.
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A two-second video of the blast itself, broadcast on state television and said to be from a closed-circuit TV camera, showed a burst of flames and passengers falling and fleeing as smoke filled the hall.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion has fallen on Islamist separatists from Chechnya or elsewhere in the restive Caucasus region who have been battling Russian authority for over 15 years.
Chechen insurgents have claimed responsibility for an array of attacks, including a double suicide bombing on Moscow's subway system last year that killed 40 people. They also have used Domodedovo Airport before, with two suicide bombers slipping through its security in 2004 to kill 90 people aboard flights that took off from there.
Putin rose to power in 2000 on a now-famous vow that Chechen rebels would be hunted down and killed "in the outhouse." But despite a second devastating war that brought Chechnya back under Moscow's control and sanctioning the violent rule of his chosen Chechen leader, Putin has been unable to wipe out the Islamic insurgency that has spread across much of the Caucasus.
A brutal crackdown on the insurgency has produced a backlash that has led to almost daily attacks on police and security forces in the Caucasus and brought the terror to Moscow.
Muscovites have also seen a sharp rise in ethnic tensions between Slavic Russians and Muslims from the Caucasus, many of whom come to the capital in search of work.
In an effort to address the poverty and high unemployment that feed the insurgency, the government has made ambitious plans to promote economic development in the Caucasus, including the building of five ski resorts across the mountainous region.
Putin said last week the government would allocate 60 billion rubles ($2 billion) this year toward the construction, but the bulk of the $15 billion needed is to come from private investors.
Medvedev has been given the task of attracting badly needed foreign investment to Russia, a mission he will take Wednesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he is to be the main speaker at the opening session.
The airport bombing undermined his mission and delayed his departure for a day. Instead of schmoozing with CEOs of major global corporations, Medvedev on Tuesday gave a tough speech to officials at the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor. He suggested that some of them could have been at fault and told them to do everything possible to find those responsible.
"The nest of these bandits, however they are called, should be eliminated," he said.
Medvedev also blamed the transport police, ordering the interior minister to identify officials who should be dismissed or face other sanctions. Airport officials also did not escape blame.
"What happened shows that obviously there were violations in guaranteeing security. And it should be answered for by those who make decisions there and by the management of the airport," he said.
Medvedev demanded robust checks of passengers and baggage at all major transportation hubs. "This will make it longer for passengers, but it's the only way," he said.
Putin was stern in addressing the Cabinet, vowing that "this crime will be solved and revenge is inevitable."
He did not elaborate and it was unclear what new actions he could take.
Following past major attacks, Putin has used the threat of terrorism as a pretext to consolidate his control and justify new curbs on democracy and civil rights.
After a group of Chechen-led militants seized a school in the southern city of Beslan in a 2004 siege that killed more than 330 people, half of them children, Putin pushed through changes to make regional governors appointed rather than elected.
In 2003, critical TV coverage of a special forces operation to storm a Moscow theater where Chechen militants held 800 hostages led to a Kremlin takeover of all national television networks. The storming resulted in the deaths of 129 hostages, mostly from effects of a narcotic gas that the special forces used to subdue the attackers.
During Putin's eight years as president, the government also pushed through anti-terrorism and anti-extremism legislation that bolstered the already sweeping powers of the police and security services, giving them extra tools to stifle opposition and put pressure on news outlets.
With the March 2012 presidential election approaching, the newly heightened importance of security may strengthen the position of Putin and the security forces that form an important part of his base. Putin and Medvedev, still submissive to his mentor, have said they will decide which one of them will run.
Both leaders took time out Tuesday to visit some of 117 people hospitalized with injuries from the attack.
President Barack Obama called Medvedev to express his condolences.
The Emergencies Ministry said the dead included one person each from Britain, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; 16 were Russians and the remaining 12 had not been identified. Nine foreigners were hospitalized.
The attack called into question Russia's ability to safely host major international events like the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup.
Still, the International Olympic Committee said it has "no doubt" that Russia will deliver a safe Winter Games in Sochi, even though the Black Sea resort is relatively close to the volatile Caucasus region.
Many athletes, officials and visitors traveling to Sochi will need to take connecting flights in Moscow.
Built in 1964, Domodedovo is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) southeast of Moscow and handled more than 22 million people last year.
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