By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – At least thirty five people were killed and sixty four others injured after two female suicide bombers staged two separate attacks on the Moscow subway system this morning. At least twenty three people were killed in the first attack, which occurred in the Lubyanka metro station at 7:50 a.m. Forty minutes later another blast killed twelve people in a train carriage at the Park Kultury metro station.

Passengers streamed out of the stations, some reportedly panicking, running, and falling, and many in tears. One man exclaimed: “This is how we live!”

Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of  the Russian secret police, indicated that the act was likely carried out by a terrorist group with links to the Northern Caucasus. Valdimir Vasiliev, head of the security committee in the state Duma, said: “There is no doubt who stands behind these explosions. Recently there have been several anti-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus to liquidate ringleaders and terrorists of underground groups.”

These attacks follow a surge of violence in the North Caucasus region which began last summer after a suicide bomber drove an explosive laden car into a police station in Nazran, the capital of the autonomous republic of Ingushetia. Three autonomous republics, Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia, have been torn apart by a low-intensity civil war which has been ongoing in the region since the 1990s.

One militant leader thought to be hiding in the mountains of Chechnya, Doku Umarov, has publicly threatened terrorist attacks in Russia twice in the past four months. In an Internet video from February 14 he said:

“The Russians do not understand that the war today is coming to their streets, the war is coming to their homes, the war is coming to their cities, they do not think that the war is coming, the war does not concern them, but we plan, God willing, to prove to them that the war is coming to their homes.”

Umarov also claimed that his group was responsible for the November bombing of the Nevsky Express passenger train en route from Moscow to St. Petersberg, which killed twenty six people.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that those responsible would be punished. He said: “A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed . . . I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed.”

The Time Online reported that the boyfriend of a woman seriously injured in this morning’s blast swore vengeance against all Muslims. He reportedly showed off blood on his hands to journalists gathered at Lubyanka Square, claiming it had come from punching a Muslim passer-by in the face.  He said:

“I am going to kill one of them. A Tajik, an Azerbaijani, it does not matter, they are all the same . . . War is going to begin.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that he has ordered senior officials to fight terrorism “without hesitation, to the end.” He said that Russia would act without compromise to root our terrorists, and that security would be boosted across Russia. A Kremlin spokesperson added that human rights would be respected during the police investigations.

Amnesty International released a statement condemning the attack, but stated: “The Russian authorities must also ensure human rights are respected in their response to the attack.”

More than eight million people use the metro system in Moscow each day.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Deadly Moscow Subway Bomb Attacks Condemned – 28 March 2010

Financial Times – At least 38 killed in Moscow metro blasts – 29 March 2010

Moscow Times –  2 Bombs Explode in Moscow Metro – 29 March 2010

Times Online – Screams in the smoke as Moscow rush hour turned to horror – 29 March 2010