THE Kremlin-backed president of Russia’s warring Chechnya region and a top Russian general were killed today when an explosion tore through a stadium in the Chechen capital where they were attending Victory Day observances, the republic’s Interior Ministry said. President Akhmad Kadyrov died about 30 minutes after the blast, likely caused by a land mine planted under the stadium’s VIP seats, a ministry official said. Col.-Gen. Valery Baranov, a top regional commander died at the scene, the official said. In all, at least 10 people were killed and up to 100 injured, the official said.
| Corpse count's at 32 as I edit this... |
The blast underlined the intense security problems even as the Kremlin says normalcy is being restored after nearly five years of fighting against separatist rebels. Russian soldiers are reported killed in near-daily small attacks by rebels and by rebel-set explosions. Grozny, the war-ruined Chechen capital, has a huge presence of Russian forces, but they have not been able to purge insurgents from the city. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but suspicion inevitably fell on the rebels.
| I doubt it was a jealous husband... |
"Justice will take the upper hand and retribution is inevitable," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the conclusion of Moscow’s Victory Day parade on Red Square, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Russia’s NTV television broadcast footage of the stadium’s VIP section collapsing into a jagged hole of torn wooden planks, sending up a plume of brown smoke. Panicked people dressed in their Sunday best clambered over the seating bleachers. One man was shown carrying a bloodied child, while men in uniform dragged a man covered in blood away from the broken seating area. Shots rang out into the air. Sergei Kozhemyaka, a duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry in southern Russia, said the stadium was quickly evacuated. Kozhemyaka said that a second land mine was found near the VIP seats. Russia’s Echo of Moscow radio reported that numerous people were detained. Russia marks the Allied victory over the Nazis every May 9 with military parades and fireworks around the country. In 2002, a bomb exploded during a Victory Day military parade in the Caspian Sea port of Kaspiisk, killing 43 people, including 12 children.
| In the past week or two there've been more stories indicating Kadyrov might be successful in enticing Makhadov to hang it up. That'd take the thin cloak of legitimacy from the Bad Guys, and Basayev's been trying to make it not happen. Looks like he succeeded today. |
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