Russian authorities say bomb caused fatal train crash

[FarCenter]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4943004,00.html

Russia's domestic intelligence service says it has found the remains of an improvised explosive device at the site of a train derailment that killed at least 26 and injured nearly 100 people.

"We are indeed talking about a terrorist attack," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for an investigative committee set up by Russia's FSB domestic intelligence service, told the Interfax news agency.

He said the committee had found fragments of a large bomb at the scene of the luxury train's crash.

FSB head Alexsander Bortnikov, reporting to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a televised meeting, said his investigators estimated the bomb packed the punch of seven kilograms (15 lbs.) of TNT.

The "Nevsky Express" was headed to St. Petersburg from Moscow when the last three cars went off the tracks about 350 kilometers (200 miles) from Moscow at 9:34 pm local time (6:34 pm UTC), on Friday, November 27.

661 passengers were on board at the time of the crash. Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said 96 people were injured and being treated in area hospitals.

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[greennina]

1. Even the Russian Media...

Is playing up the terrorist bogeyman.

[Posteritatis]

2. What would you call bombing a passenger train? (nt)

[FarCenter]

3. Russian police issue description of train blast suspect

One of the main suspects in an attack on a Moscow-St. Petersburg train that killed at least 26 people was described by the Interior Minister on Saturday as "over 40, stocky and ginger-haired."

Russia's federal security chief earlier said that an explosive device equivalent to 7 kg of TNT caused Friday evening's deadly derailment. Traces of explosives have been found at the scene and prosecutors have opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism.

"There is information to suggest that several people were involved," Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev also told journalists. He said that a person who supplied information on the suspects was being sought.

The announcement came after Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin said that a second, weaker bomb had exploded on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. (11:00 GMT) at the site of the attack, but that it had not caused any injuries.

<SNIP>
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20091128/157021790.html

[Adsos Letter]

4. This is sad all the way round...

the great majority (quite possibly ALL) of the people on that train were probabaly not guilty of anything.

And the Russians shouldn't have laid waste to Chechnya the way they did.

[FarCenter]

6. Having lost to the CIA-sponsored mujahideen in Afghanistan --

they had to win against the CIA-sponsored salafists in Chechnya.

[Adsos Letter]

8. I thought the First Chechen War was primarily a secular affair ...

sparked by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and that it morphed into a battleground for jihadi's only during the run up to the Second Chechen War, and partially because of the destruction of secular controlling elements during the first war?

And because of the radicalization caused by the destruction of Grozny, in particular.

Edit: Forgot to spellcheck :dunce:

[cowcommander]

5. "Remember, No Russian"

False flag operation?

[Adsos Letter]

9. Where did you find that quote? I didn't see it in the linked article...

and isn't Chechnya already pretty much flattened?

[rockymountaindem]

13. It's from the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Specifically a highly-controversial level wherein the player takes part in a terrorist attack on a Russian airport. I'll spare you the gory details as I have seen them on the web (I don't have a gaming console so I haven't played it), but basically it involves an undercover CIA agent trying to gain the trust of a Russian terrorist by participating in a horrible atrocity as a prelude to busting the terrorist mastermind.

I would imagine it's quite a stretch from a video game to assuming that this is somehow a "false flag operation", but speculating about such things is obviously a lot more fun for a lot of people than just looking at the facts.

[Adsos Letter]

14. Thankyou for filling me in rockymountaindem

I'll admit to being culturally illiterate in terms of simulations (other than an occasional foray into SPMBT).

I suspect some group operating out of Chechnya, and I suppose that is the direction the Russians are looking also.

[applegrove]

7. What an easy target a high speed train makes. Glad we don't have any of those in Canada.

[Posteritatis]

10. We have plenty of passenger trains

Speed has nothing to do with whether or not a section of track can be mined.

[applegrove]

11. That's true. But I would guess a train going at 200km/hr would kill alot more people if

it was derailed than a via train going at normal speed.

[Posteritatis]

12. Fearing them because of The Terrorists strikes me as similar to the fear of tall buildings now

It's a bit too outlier for me to really bother to worry about it.