Domodedovo bomb hearings to be held behind closed doors

Proceedings against the gang suspected of sending Magomed Yevloyev, 20, to blow up the arrivals hall of Domodedovo airport will be secret.

Meanwhile, the Investigative Committee has announced the reasons for its high-profile raid upon the airport two weeks ago – to establish who owns it.

Investigators are unsatisfied with Dmitry Kamenshchik’s assertions that he is the sole owner.

Investigators are also following a separate criminal probe into how security allowedYevloyev to perpetrate his crime.

Moscow’s Basmanny court ruled on Wednesday that further court hearings should take place behind closed doors to “ensure the safety of the process,” Interfax reported, Lenta.ru cited.

Press will not be admitted even to announcements of court decisions.

Evloyev killed 37 and wounded 160 when he blew himself up on Jan 24. His 16-year-old brother and 22-year-old sister have also been arrested in connection with the fatal attack.

The court has extended custody for brothers Islam and Ilyez Yandiyev, who are likewise implicated.

The police raid earlier this month prompted speculation that the rough tactics were part of an investigation into the circumstances of the attack.

No announcement at the time was given as to why the raid took place. Investigators announced today in a press release that it was to find out exactly who owns the transport hub, Russia’s largest.

But transport analyst Nikita Melnikov at Aton Brokerage was unconvinced. He told The Moscow News soon after the raid that both the bombing and a later incident when a woman managed to board a plane without having bought a ticket were opportunities to probe Domodedovo over ownership.

The state questions Kamenshchik’s ownership, both he and the powers that be have a brittle relationship.

Successful businesses with murky ownership origins have a tendency to fall foul of the authorities, Melnikov said and Domodedovo is likely to continue feeling the heat until it takes on board state recommendations, something Kamenshchik himself complained of a press conference on Tuesday.

Umarov escapes

Hopes that the security forces had killed North Caucasus warlord Doku Umarov in last week’s air strike on an insurgent base were seemingly dashed as reports emerged that he could well be alive and back online soon.

Yunus-Beka Yevkurov, head of the Republic of Ingushetia, said there was no way yet of confirming the death or escape of the wanted man, “The remains (found on the site of the attack) have not yet been fully examined and we cannot yet guarantee that he is alive or dead,” he told Kommersant. But a goggle-eyed public will not have to wait long, “If this bandit is alive the fact will soon be confirmed on the internet,” a special services source said.

Russians mourn bombing victims; 10 others killed

Clashes between police and alleged militants left 10 more people dead Friday in Russia's volatile North Caucasus, even as stunned residents laid flowers in a square where a suicide car bombing killed 17 people and wounded more than 140 only a day ago.

Thursday's bombing near the central market of Vladikavkaz, the capital of the North Ossetia republic, was the most serious attack in Russia since the March subway bombings in Moscow that killed 40 people.

Russia's ethnically diverse North Caucasus region has been gripped by violence stemming from two separatist wars in Chechnya and fueled by poverty, rampant official corruption and alleged extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and torture by law enforcement officials.

In the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the Interior Ministry said police on Friday killed four suspected militants holed up in a house in the village of Makhargi. Three police officers were killed in hours-long battle.

Police also killed a suspected militant during a raid on a house in the town of Derbent, near the border with Azerbaijan, said Magomed Tagirov, a spokesman for the regional Interior Ministry's branch.

A Dagestani policeman and a prison warden were also shot to death in separate attacks, ministry officials said Friday.

The Vladikavkaz market was cordoned off Friday and investigators combed the site for clues about the bombing. Flags flew at half-staff throughout the city.

A North Ossetia health official said 107 of the wounded were in local hospitals and 11 severely injured victims had been flown to Moscow, according to state news agency ITAR-Tass.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to track down the perpetrators of the attack.

"The terrorists involved in such actions will be destroyed," he said at a policy forum in Yaroslavl, a city in western Russia. "We are determined to fight the terrorism to the end."

Thursday's blast was so powerful that glass in nearby buildings shattered. The area was cleaned of blood and shreds of clothing but twisted wrecks of several cars still littered the street.

A few blocks away, weeping relatives and neighbors mourned two bombing victims: 54-year-old Yaselin Mamedova and 18-month-old Elnur Ashinov. Their bodies were being prepared for burial later in the day in line with Muslim practice.

There has been no public claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack, but suspicion fell on Islamic militants who launch frequent small attacks in neighboring North Caucasus republics, including Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia.

Those three provinces have a Muslim majority, but North Ossetia is predominantly Orthodox Christian with a sizable Muslim minority.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Russia's top Muslim cleric after the blast and said Russia's 20 million Muslims should play a key role in eradicating Islamic extremism in the nation.

"The crimes like the one that was committed in the North Caucasus today are aimed at sowing enmity between our citizens. We mustn't allow this," Putin said at the Thursday meeting.

Remembering Beslan

Towns and cities across Russia have united in grief on the anniversary of the tragic end of the Beslan school siege in 2004.

The terrorist attack, the worst on Russian soil, took the lives of 334 hostages – including 186 children – after a three-day siege at the school.

The violent conclusion came on Sep. 3, and the date will be marked with mourning ceremonies in Beslan itself and cities from Novgorod in the north west to Khabarovsk in the far east.

Russian secret service: Osama bin Laden is alive

Russian secret service has no information confirming that the leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden is dead.

Special presidential representative for the fight against international terrorism and organized crime Anatoly Safonov said that they no evidence that would suggest that bin Laden has been killed.

International media has reportedly speculated on whether or not bin Laden was destroyed during the bombing campaigns in Afghanistan or Iraq.

"We have no evidence that this figure has become a virtual person" - said Safonov.

Safonov emphasized that the American and Russian secret services have the same approach to capturing bin Laden be it legal, or technical.

Finding bin Laden, said Safonov, “is just a matter of time.”

Murder on the Nevsky Express

Police were looking for a man and woman in a silver Lada on Monday in connection with the bomb blast that derailed the St. Petersburg-bound Nevsky Express train on Friday night, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 90.
The attack - the deadliest Russia has seen in the last five years - included two blasts, but no one was harmed in the second, which coincided with visits from senior investigative officials.
Among those killed were Federal Reserve Agency chief Boris Yevstratikov and former senator Sergei Tarasov, chairman of the state company Avtodor.
A criminal investigation has been instigated under article 205 (terrorist attack). RIA Novosti quoted a source in the Novgorod law enforcement services as saying that police were looking for a man aged about 30 and a woman in a silver VAZ-2109. Earlier, police chief Rashid Nurgaliyev described one of the suspects as a stocky red-headed man about 40 years old.
The ultra-nationalist Combat 18 group claimed responsibility for the blast, Ekho Moskvy radio reported, but media reports also point to suspects connected to Chechen separatists.
The train, which was carrying 661 passengers and 21 crewmembers, left Moscow at 7 pm. The bomb exploded at about 9:40 pm under the locomotive of the train while it was traveling at about 200 kilometres an hour on the Aleshinka-Uglovka section of the railroad, near the northern border of the Tver region. According to police sources cited by the Kommersant daily, the bomb, estimated at about
7 kilogrammes in TNT equivalent, contained a mix of explosives that included ammonium nitrate, which was responsible for the flare that passengers on the train reported seeing. The bomb was buried under the right rail and was reportedly activated via a wire attached to the detonator, explosives experts cited by the paper said.
The second bomb, placed near an electric pole a few metres from the rail, went off at 2 pm on Saturday, just as Alexander Bastrykin, chief of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, was touring the scene of the previous blast.
The blast had all the trappings of a previous attack on the same Nevsky Express on August 13, 2007, Kommersant reported. Then, 60 people were injured. Although extremist nationalists were initially suspected in the attack, two Ingush nationals, Maksharil Khidiyev and Salambek Dzakhiev, were arrested for bringing the explosives. They were said to have been acting on the orders of former military serviceman Pavel Kosolapov and Chechen militant warlord Doku Umarov, both of whom are subjects of an Interpol search.
Kosolapov was named as a possible suspect on Sunday, Kommersant reported, adding that he is also described as stocky and red-headed. But it had not yet been confirmed whether Umarov was linked to the latest blast, police sources said.
Incidentally, Khidiyev had insisted on his innocence in court until Nov. 26, the day before the latest blast, Gazeta.ru reported. That day, he admitted planting the explosives for the 2007 attack.
President Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting Saturday about the attack, while the government set up a commission dealing with the disaster.
Health Minister Tatyana Golikova announced Saturday that families of those killed would receive 300,000 roubles from the government, while those who were injured would receive between 50,000 and 100,000 roubles. Russian Railways has said it would pay victims' families up to 500,000 roubles.
RIA Novosti quoted Golikova as saying that six foreigners were injured in the wreck. An Italian citizen was hospitalised in a serious condition with multiple fractures, while the condition of a Belgian was deemed "satisfactory". There were no reports on the health of four other foreigners, an Azeri, two Ukrainians and one Belarusian.
A box with 1.5 kg of heroin was found in the car that suffered the most damage in the wreck, Gazeta.ru cited a source in Russian Railways as saying. The publication estimated that the box could be worth about 2.5 million roubles.
If confirmed to be a terror attack, Friday's blast is the deadliest since a spate of bombings in late summer 2004, including a metro blast and two downed airliners.

Russia holds Nevsky Express train blast funerals

The funerals of some of the 26 people who died in a blast that derailed a Moscow to St Petersburg luxury train on Friday have taken place in Russia.
Officials say the Nevsky Express derailment was caused by a bomb, but no group has yet claimed responsibility.
Meanwhile, Russian officials say a second blast which exploded on Saturday at the scene of the original blast was intended to hurt investigators.
Some analysts have suggested North Caucasus rebels may be responsible.
However a senior senator with expertise in the Caucasus, Alexander Torshin, has questioned that theory.
Mr Torshin said local "saboteurs" could be responsible for the blast, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
"The blast was carried out professionally, we are talking about well-prepared, well-trained people using a cold-blooded calculation, and it is the counterintelligence's task to track them down," he said.
Police have identified a house where they believe suspects had been staying, Russian media reports say.
Among those who were buried on Tuesday were Sergei Tarasov, a former St Petersburg vice governor and Boris Yevstratikov, head of the Federal Agency for State Reserves.
Some of the 26 have already been buried.
Russian railways chief Vladmir Yakunin said extra security measures were being taken to prevent other similar attacks.
Police are continuing to comb the debris of the Nevsky Express - a luxury high-speed train which travels between Russia's two main cities.
Police said an "improvised explosive device" derailed the last three carriages of the express.
Twenty five people were killed on Friday when the train derailed near the town of Bologoye, some 400km (250 miles) north-west of Moscow. The toll rose to 26 over the weekend when an injured woman died in hospital. Russian media reports have put the death toll at 27, but this has not been confirmed.
Nearly 100 people were wounded, some of them seriously. Authorities said six foreigners were among them - an Italian, a Belgian, an Azerbaijani, two Belarussians and one Ukrainian.
A second, less powerful device went off on Saturday near the site of the first, reportedly injuring one of the men searching for clues.
Alexander Bastrykin, a lead investigator, is thought to have suffered a head injury.
This explosion was reported to have been triggered by a remote mobile phone.
The Nevsky Express is an expensive train popular with government officials and business executives.
Russian officials have released a photo-fit of a man they believe is linked to the bombing.
The interior ministry circulated the sketch of a man in his 50s with a wig of red hair, who had reportedly been seen by witnesses near the blast scene.
In 2007, a bomb on the same line derailed a train, injuring nearly 30 passengers.
That blast has been blamed on Chechen separatists.

Russia train crash investigation examines bomb theory

The authorities in Russia are treating the crash of an express train in which at least 25 people were killed as a possible act of terrorism.
A crater has been found near the track, raising suspicions that a bomb may have been used to derail the train.
The prosecutor-general has opened a criminal case on terrorism charges, Russian news agencies report.
The train crashed in remote countryside as the train travelled between Moscow and St Petersburg.
Hundreds of rescuers and officials have been working throughout the night at the scene near the town of Bologoye in Tver region.
Some reports say that as many as 39 people have died.
The train was carrying more than 650 people. More than 90 are in hospital, some of them taken there by helicopter.
The chief of state-owned railroad firm Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, said investigators believed Friday evening's crash was caused by an act of terrorism.
"To put it simply, a terrorist attack" was the main line of inquiry being pursued by experts investigating the derailment, Mr Yakunin said on state television from the scene.
Some passengers reported a loud bang occurring just before the derailment.
And Russian television channels have been broadcasting a recording of a mobile phone call from the train driver to the emergencies ministry. The driver says there has been an explosion under the train.
The train, known as the Nevsky Express, was travelling on one of the busiest rail routes in Russia, and Friday evening is peak travel time.
In 2007, a bomb on the same line derailed a train, injuring nearly 30 passengers.
Two men suspected of having links to Chechen rebels were accused of planting a bomb next to the track.

Russia 'kills al-Qaeda operative'

Russian forces have killed an al-Qaeda militant in the increasingly volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan, officials say.
The Algerian national, known as "Doctor Mohammed", was killed when police stormed a house near Chechnya on Sunday night, an unidentified official said.
Correspondents say a violent Islamist insurgency is growing in the region.
The official announced the deaths in a televised address, dressed in combat gear with his back to the camera.
"A representative of an international terrorist organisation in the North Caucasus tasked to oversee terrorist acts in Dagestan was neutralised during a combat operation," he told Russia's Vesti-24 news channel.
A second militant was also killed as police raided the house in Khasavyurt, near the border with Chechnya, he added.
Violence has flared in the North Caucasus in recent months, with dozens of militants and members of the security forces being killed in Dagestan, neighbouring Chechnya and Ingushetia.
Russia says the insurgency is being funded by foreign-based extremist Islamist organisations.
Russian forces have fought two wars against Islamist separatists in the mainly Muslim republic of Chechnya since 1994. The conflicts claimed more than 100,000 lives and left much of Chechnya in ruins.

CRIME Briefs - Russian senators vote to abolish juries for terrorist trials

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - The upper house of Russia's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to abolish juries for terrorist trials and cases involving kidnapping, state treason, espionage, coup d'etats and other serious offenses.
Under the bill, the country's criminal code will be amended to require that trials of suspects charged with terrorism offenses will be heard by a panel of three judges.
The amendments will also tighten criminal responsibility for those charged with terrorist offenses.
Criminal offenses involving explosives aimed at causing damage to companies, transportation and communication networks or vital infrastructure with a view to disrupting Russia's economic security and defense capabilities will be punishable by 12 to 20 years in prison.
Defendants charged with premeditated murder could face 15 to 20 years in jail or life imprisonment against the current 12 to 20 years behind bars.
Similar prison terms are expected for terrorists who target nuclear energy facilities or use nuclear, radioactive, toxic or biochemical materials to maim or kill.