Russia: nationalists likely behind Aug. 13 train bomb
23 Aug 2007 15:15:46 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds detentions in paragraph 4, more background) By Christian Lowe MOSCOW, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A senior Russian prosecutor said nationalists were the most likely culprits in a bombing which derailed a train travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Aug. 13, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. "The most serious (line of inquiry) is a terrorist attack by nationalist youth groups from Moscow or St Petersburg," First Deputy Prosecutor-General Alexander Bastrykin said in an interview to be published in Rossiisskaya Gazeta on Friday, Interfax reported. Russian investigators were not, however, ruling out the possibility that the bombing was linked to insurgents from Russia's Chechnya region, or organised crime, Interfax quoted Bastrykin as saying in the newspaper interview. He said "several people" had been held as part of the investigation, including one Chechen, but cautioned against drawing any conclusions from that, RIA news agency reported, also citing the same newspaper interview. A bomb planted on the tracks exploded just as the train passed over it on one of Russia's busiest routes. Carriages were tipped on their sides and dozens were wounded, but no one killed. Russian media have previously cited unnamed police sources as saying nationalists were their principal suspects, but until now no prosecutor has stated this on the record. Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of a Moscow centre which monitors the activities of far-right groups, told Reuters earlier this month he believed suggestions nationalists were involved in the train bombings were "rubbish." SHAVEN HEADS Radical nationalists are most commonly associated with street attacks on dark-skinned migrant workers. They have been linked in the past to bomb attacks as well, including a blast at a Moscow market packed with migrant traders that killed 10 people. Two students were charged over that bombing last year. But in each case their targets have been hate figures for nationalists. Passengers on the Moscow-St Petersburg train are, for the most part, affluent ethnic Russians. Some Russian media have speculated the bombing might have been an attempt to influence the outcome of next year's presidential elections, when a replacement will be chosen for outgoing President Vladimir Putin. Russia has a large number of far-right political parties and movements, plus a proliferation of underground groups, mostly of young men with shaven heads who wear Nazi insignia. They have no single ideology, but ideas many have in common include the expulsion of all non-Russians, a revival of Russia's military might, the restoration of the monarchy and the rejection of liberal economic policies.
