Um, was there ever any doubt?
Patrushev accused a group led by Shamil Basayev, known as Riyadus Salikhin, of organizing recent suicide bombings he said were aimed at sparking "maximum political resonance" by killing as many civilians as possible. Patrushev did not specify the attacks, but he appeared to be referring to at least two suicide bombings this month - one that killed six people outside the National Hotel in downtown Moscow and another that killed 45 people on a train in the Stavropol region, near Chechnya.
| Actually, I think you could pretty much pick a boom and Shamil's behind it. People are a passive lot, by and large. Few of them sit around watching the telly and suddenly cry out: "By, Gad, Martha! I think I'll go out and blow up!" Invariably, someone suggests it and, being passive, they say "hokay." |
A series of attacks that authorities say were suicide bombings, several of them by women, has killed nearly 300 people in and around Chechnya and in Moscow in the past year. Basayev has claimed responsibility for some attacks, but not the most recent ones. Patrushev said Basayev has been urging other rebel leaders in Chechnya to train suicide attackers. He asserted that the organizers of the attacks enlist "fanatically inclined" women aged 16 to 30 to carry out bombings, as well as use women he claimed are abducted in various parts of Russia. |