The respected business daily Kommersant said the group of North Caucasus-based bully boyz had already prepared a fertiliser bomb and were in the closing stages of their operation when they were incarcerated by Federal Security Service
... the successor to the KGB...
(FSB) agents.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov on July 18 reported to President Dmitry Medvedev that his service had averted a "major terror act" in the Moscow region in the preceding days. Mr Bortnikov added at the time that bully boyz had plans to target public places and "transport infrastructure" in the Moscow region.
Russia is battling a Mohammedan insurgency in the North Caucasus, and suicide and other attacks have returned to the Russian capital in recent years. A jacket wallah from the North Caucasus killed 37 people at Russia's busiest airport in January. Two female suicide bombers from that region killed 40 and maimed dozens on the underground during morning rush hour last year. Russia's leading Islamist rebel,
Doku Count DokuUmarov
... Self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku has announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia...
, in February vowed to make 2011 "a year of blood and tears" and has claimed most recent attacks.