Russia

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | August 31st, 2004 | Trackback

A suicide bomber believed to be connected to Chechen rebels killed ten people and injured dozens outside a central Moscow subway station Tuesday, a week after two airliners were blown up by bombs believed to have been carried aboard by Chechen women. Following the plane crashes the Interior Ministry said it was taking measures to increase security in public places, especially airports and railway stations. The suicide bomber observed police checking bags of people entering the Rizhskaya subway station just off Prospekt Mira, or Boulevard of Peace, and blew herself up outside. Russian citizens have passports for domestic travel, and authorities will now require full passport details on tickets. The move is an effort to improve security in an airline system with relatively loose controls. Many of the country’s airports do not have metal detectors and most baggage is not scanned. Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, where both doomed flights originated, has refused to install metal detectors because they supposedly would cause backups and crowd entrances. Major airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg have other security measures in place, such as sniffer dogs trained to detect explosives, but many regional airports have such lax security that one official said, “You can get anything through that you want.”

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