Terror Returns

The November 27 train bombing that killed 26 and wounded nearly 100 in the resulting train wreck turned public attention once again to domestic terrorism, after several years of relative calm (though attacks have continued within the bounds of the northern Caucasus).

The blast that derailed the Nevsky Express — one of the faster and more expensive ways of traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg by rail — took place in a forested region near Novgorod.   

Chechen separatist Doku Umarov and a nationalist group both claimed responsibility for the attack. Yet at present there is insufficient evidence to support either claim. Umarov, thought to be hiding somewhere in the Caucasus, is the primary suspect for a similar train attack in 2007, but he also claimed to be behind the accident at Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro plant (see Russian Life Nov/Dec 2009), which turned out to be false.