Woman suicide bomber kills at least 13 at Russian station

Top News Woman suicide bomber kills at least 13 at Russian station Sun, Dec 29 06:27 AM EST image By Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of a Russian train station on Sunday, killing at least 13 people in the second deadly attack in the space of three days as the country prepares to host the Winter Olympics. The state Investigative Committee said the bomber detonated her explosives in front of a metal detector just inside the main entrance of Volgograd station. Footage shown on TV showed a massive orange fireball filling the hall and smoke billowing out through shattered windows. "People were lying on the ground, screaming and asking for help," a witness, Alexander Koblyakov, told Rossiya-24 TV. A spokesman for Russian investigators said at least 13 people died, although the regional governor put the toll at 15. President Vladimir Putin ordered law enforcement agencies to take all necessary measures to ensure security, RIA news agency quoted his spokesman as saying. A federal police spokesman, Vladimir Kolesnikov, said security would be stepped up at train stations and airports. Russian Heath Ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai said 42 people were wounded and that some would be flown to Moscow for treatment. Volgograd is a city of around 1 million people, about 430 miles northeast of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics - a major prestige project for Putin - will open on February 7. Formerly known as Stalingrad, it lies close to Russia's North Caucasus, a strip of mostly Muslim provinces plagued by near-daily violence in a long-running Islamist insurgency. Insurgent leader Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord, urged militants in a video posted online in July to use "maximum force" to prevent Putin staging the Olympics. An attack by a female suicide bomber killed seven people in Volgograd on October 21. On Friday, a car bomb killed three people in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk, 270 km (170 miles) east of Sochi. The station was busier than usual, with people travelling home for the New Year holidays. TV footage showed emergency services carrying out victims, with at least one body lying motionless on the ground. Another witness, Vladimir, said: "I saw melted, twisted bits of metal, broken glass and bodies lying on the street." Sunday's attack was the deadliest to strike Russia's heartland since January 2011, when Islamist insurgents killed 37 people at a Moscow airport. (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel and Steve Gutterman,; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) ======================= Dec. 30, 2013 5:33 AM ET Successive suicide bombings in Russia kill over 30 By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES AIM Share An ambulance leaves the site of a trolleybus explosion in Volgograd, Russia, Monday, Dec. 30, 2013. The explosion left 10 people dead Monday, a day after a suicide bombing that killed at least 17 at the city's main railway. The explosions put the city on edge and highlighted the terrorist threat that Russia is facing as it prepares to host the Winter Games in February. Volgograd is about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of Sochi, where the Olympics are to be held. (AP Photo/Denis Tyrin) 1 of 5 More News Video North Sea crossing aborted after suspected arson Dec. 29, 2013 7:08 AM ET Suicide bomber kills 13 in Russia's south Dec. 29, 2013 6:19 AM ET Fire on express train in India kills at least 26 Dec. 28, 2013 10:58 AM ET Fire on express train in India kills at least 23 Dec. 27, 2013 9:45 PM ET Winter storm delays flights, kills 5 in UK, France Dec. 24, 2013 11:57 AM ET Buy AP Photo Reprints MOSCOW (AP) — A blast that tore through an electric bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd during Monday's morning rush hour, killing 14, was probably carried out by suicide bombers from the same organization behind a railway explosion a day earlier, officials said. Together more than 30 people were killed in the explosions, putting the city of one million on edge and highlighting the terrorist threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February's Winter Games in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin's pet project. While terrorists may find it hard to get to the tightly guarded Olympic facilities, the bombings have shown they can hit civilian targets elsewhere in Russia with shocking ease. Volgograd, located about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of Sochi, serves as a key transport hub for southern Russia, with numerous bus routes linking it to volatile provinces in Russia's North Caucasus, where insurgents have been seeking an Islamic state. Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency said Monday's explosion involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday's bombing at the city's main railway station. "That confirms the investigators' version that the two terror attacks were linked," Markin said in a statement. "They could have been prepared in one place." Markin said that a suicide attacker was responsible for the bus explosion, reversing an earlier official statement saying that the blast was caused by a bomb that had been left in the vehicle's passenger area. At least 14 people were killed and nearly 30 were wounded, according to public health officials. Officials did not name names and no one has claimed responsibility for either bombing, but they came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov threatened new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Olympics in Sochi. Suicide bombings and other terror attacks have rocked Russia for years, but most recently have been confined to the North Caucasus region. The successive attacks in Volgograd signaled that militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region. The city, formerly called Stalingrad, also serves as an important symbol of Russian pride because of a historic World War II battle in which the Soviets turned the tide against the Nazis. "Volgograd, a symbol of Russia's suffering and victory in World War II, has been singled out by the terrorist leaders precisely because of its status in people's minds," Dmitry Trenin, the head of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office, said in a commentary. Monday's explosion ripped away much of the bus's exterior and shattered windows in nearby buildings. It virtually paralyzed public transport in the city, forcing many residents to walk long distances to get to work. Russian authorities have been slow to introduce stringent security checks on bus routes, making them the transport of choice for terrorists in the region. A few months ago authorities introduced a requirement for intercity bus passengers to produce ID when buying tickets, like rail or air passengers, but procedures have remained lax and some of the routes aren't controlled. Even tight railway security is sometimes not enough. In Sunday's suicide bombing the attacker detonated in the crowd in front of the station's metal detectors. A suicide bus bombing in Volgograd in October killed six people. On Friday, three people were killed when an explosives-rigged car blew up in the city of Pyatigorsk, the center of a federal administrative district created to oversee Kremlin efforts to stabilize the North Caucasus region. In Sunday's railroad station blast, the bomber detonated explosives just beyond the station's main entrance when a police sergeant became suspicious and rushed forward to check ID, officials said. The officer was killed by the blast, and several other policemen were among some 40 people wounded. The Interior Ministry ordered police to beef up patrols at railway stations and other transport facilities across Russia. Putin on Monday summoned the chief of the main KGB successor agency and the interior minister to discuss the situation, and sent the former to Volgograd to oversee the probe. Russia in past years has seen a series of terror attacks on buses, trains and airplanes, some carried out by suicide bombers. Twin bombings on the Moscow subway in March 2010 by female suicide bombers killed 40 people and wounded more than 120. In January 2011, a male suicide bomber struck Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, killing 37 people and injuring more than 180. Umarov, who had claimed responsibility for the 2010 and 2011 bombings, ordered a halt to attacks on civilian targets during the mass street protests against Putin in the winter of 2011-12. He reversed that order in July, urging his men to "do their utmost to derail" the Sochi Olympics which he described as "satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors." The International Olympics Committee expressed its condolences over Sunday's bombing in Volgograd, but said it was confident of Russia's ability to protect the Games. Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov said Monday there was no need to take any extra steps to secure Sochi in the wake of the Volgograd bombings, as "everything necessary already has been done." Russian authorities have introduced some of the most extensive identity checks and sweeping security measures ever seen at an international sports event. Anyone wanting to attend the games that open on Feb. 7 will have to buy a ticket online from the organizers and obtain a "spectator pass" for access. Doing so will require providing passport details and contacts that will allow the authorities to screen all visitors and check their identities upon arrival. The security zone created around Sochi stretches approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) along the Black Sea coast and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) inland. Russian forces include special troops to patrol the forested mountains flanking the resort, drones to keep constant watch over Olympic facilities and speed boats to patrol the coast. The security plan includes a ban on cars from outside the zone from a month before the games begin until a month after they end. _____ Associated Press writer Jim Heintz contributed to this report.

Putin to pardon jailed tycoon Khodorkovsky

Thu, Dec 19 17:14 PM EST PHOTO: Mikhail Khodorkovsky (L) meets former German FM Hans-Dietrich Genscher (R) at Schoenefeld airport in Berlin. Ex-oil tycoon has issued a statement saying that he asked President Putin for a pardon for “family reasons” and is glad “there has been a positive decision.” He added that now he is going to spend time with his parents, wife and children and is “waiting to meet them.” FULL STORY: http://on.rt.com/7pue4v (Photo from khodorkovsky.ru) By Alexei Anishchuk and Timothy Heritage MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin is to pardon one of his best known opponents, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, after a decade in jail in what may be a gesture to critics of his human rights record before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics. Putin made the surprise announcement that he would soon free Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, after a marathon news conference on Thursday in which he exuded confidence that he has reasserted his authority in the face of street protests. He said two members of the Pussy Riot protest group would also be freed, but it was the about-turn on Khodorkovsky, who was due for release next August, that grabbed most attention, lifting Moscow share prices on hopes it may mean investors have less cause to fear falling foul of Kremlin politics. Khodorkovsky, 50, fell out spectacularly with Putin a decade ago. His company, Yukos, was broken up and sold off, mainly into state hands, following his arrest at gunpoint on an airport runway in Siberia on fraud and tax evasion charges in 2003. He became a symbol of what investors say is the Kremlin's abuse of the courts for political ends. The Kremlin denies this but Putin has singled Khodorkovsky out for bitter personal attacks and ignored many calls for his release. On Thursday, however, he said: "He has been in jail already more than 10 years. This is a serious punishment." Saying Khodorkovsky's mother was ill and that he had asked for clemency, he added: "I decided that with these circumstances in mind ... a decree pardoning him will be signed." Russian shares rose over 1 percent on the news, though later settled back by the end of the day. A sustained rally would require "a consistent track record of implementation of market-friendly reforms - in particular, of steps to improve the judicial system, so that decisions are more predictable and property rights better protected," a Moscow-based economist at an investment bank said. Lawyers for Khodorkovsky initially said he had not sought clemency but his representatives later said they were trying to reach him in prison near the Arctic Circle to clarify matters. An early release had not been expected and there had even been speculation that new charges might be brought against him, as they were before his sentence was extended in 2010 after a second trial for theft and money-laundering. Khodorkovsky began dabbling in small business as a Moscow student Communist leader under Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika reforms of the late 1980s. Still in his 30s, he emerged from the cut-throat chaos of the Soviet collapse as one of the wealthiest "oligarchs" under Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin. His fall from grace after criticizing Putin, a former KGB officer, has long been held up by foreign investors as evidence of the weakness of property rights and the rule of law in Russia. "A THIEF SHOULD SIT IN JAIL" Supporters say Khodorkovsky was sentenced in 2005 to curb a political challenge, bring his oil assets under state control and warn other oligarchs not to cross Putin. Amnesty International, which campaigned for dissidents in Soviet times, declared Khodorkovsky a "prisoner of conscience". In the eyes of critics at home and abroad, Khodorkovsky's jailing is a significant stain on the record of Putin, who was first elected president in 2000 and has not ruled out seeking another six-year term in 2018. In televised comments three years ago, Putin aggressively defended his imprisonment, spitting out a line uttered by a tough detective in a Soviet film: "A thief must be in jail". Noting the 150 years given to American fraudster Bernard Madoff, he quipped: "I think we are a lot more liberal." Putin also suggested Khodorkovsky had blood on his hands, referring to a murder conviction against a former senior Yukos employee and saying of alleged victims that "they found only their brains in a garage". Khodorkovsky is believed to have angered Putin by funding opposition parties, questioning state decisions on oil pipeline policy, raising corruption allegations and presenting himself as an embattled champion of good corporate governance. Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, who will turn 80 next year and has had cancer, was unaware of any request for a pardon. But she told Reuters by telephone: "I want to believe he will pardon him ... I want to believe Putin is not totally lost." Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said a plea for a pardon meant Khodorkovsky had admitted guilt. His lawyers say convicts seeking a presidential pardon are not automatically required to admit any wrongdoing. In comments published in the New York Times late last month, Khodorkovsky said his mother was facing cancer for a second time after many years of remission and that they might never see each other again outside of a prison. "Putin is Putin, war is war, but one's mother is dearer than anything," Dmitry Gololobov, a former Yukos legal head who lives in Britain, told Reuters by telephone. He said Khodorkovsky might have sought a pardon without telling his lawyers. Khodorkovsky's son, Pavel, called it "very happy news" and said he was waiting to talk to his father to hear more. Russian business leaders and foreign investors welcomed the pardon. "This is good news for investors," said German Gref, CEO of state-controlled Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank. Gref served as economy minister under Putin for many years. Business magnate Mikhail Prokhorov said: "Something has happened that should have happened several years ago." POLITICAL CHALLENGE? Analysts had said Putin would only allow Khodorkovsky to walk free if he no longer regarded him as a political threat. The former businessman has announced no political plans. Gololobov said Putin had nothing to lose by letting Khodorkovsky out a few months early and that the show of mercy would make it harder for Khodorkovsky to criticize Putin. "Will he walk up to a podium and say: 'Putin's a swine'?" Gololobov said. "Such direct battle would be awkward." Lawyers said Platon Lebedev, a business associate who was tried alongside Khodorkovsky and is due for release in May, would not ask Putin for a pardon. Freeing Khodorkovsky and the two women from Pussy Riot, jailed over a protest against Putin in a Russian Orthodox Church but now covered by a broader amnesty, could ease criticism of the president before the Olympics in February. Putin has staked a great deal of personal prestige on the Winter Games in Sochi, and is under fire abroad over a law banning the spread of "gay propaganda" among minors. A government source said the pardons would deprive Western critics of a cause: "I think the decision to free Pussy Riot and Khodorkovsky was taken just before the Olympic Games so that they will not be able to wield this banner against Putin." On a website supporting Khodorkovsky, a man named Igor commented: "It was simply beneficial for Putin to make a show of 'mercy' before the Olympics in order to avoid a huge world scandal." Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader, said Putin's motives were unclear: "Maybe the Olympics," he said. "It doesn't matter. The important thing is that this is wonderful and absolutely unexpected news." Thirty people, mostly foreigners, jailed over a seaborne Greenpeace protest in September against Russian Arctic oil drilling are also expected to avoid trial under the amnesty approved by parliament this week, though Putin said the measure was not drawn up with Pussy Riot or Greenpeace in mind. (Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman, maria Tsvetkova, Katya Golubkova, Alissa de Carbonnel, Lidia Kelly, Vladimir Soldatkin and Maya Nikolaeva in Moscow; Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Elizabeth Piper, Alastair Macdonald and Will Waterman)

Russian pipeline blast, quake strike 2014 Olympics host Sochi

Russian pipeline blast, quake strike 2014 Olympics host Sochi Wed, Dec 26 01:53 AM EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - A gas pipeline blast followed by a mild earthquake has struck Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a local government spokeswoman told Reuters on Wednesday. Irina Gogoleva of Russia's Emergencies Ministry said no one was hurt and there was no apparent damage to the city's infrastructure after a 5.2 magnitude earthquake was reported at 0242 local time on Wednesday (2242 GMT on Tuesday). "The Emergencies Ministry servicemen scoured through the city districts, bridges and electrical cables, there was no damage," Gogoleva said, adding that the epicentre of the quake was some 150 kilometres (93 miles) off Sochi in the Black Sea. In an unrelated incident, a gas pipeline that feeds a local power station exploded a couple of hours before the quake. Gogoleva said the power plant had switched to fuel oil and the city was receiving electrical power. She said the reason for the blast was unknown. Sochi, the first Russian city to have been awarded the Winter Olympics, is located on the coast close to Georgia, with whom Russia fought a brief war in 2008 over two breakaway regions. The wider volatile Caucasus region is a major source of political tension. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Paul Simao)