RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Jan 26, 2011
TODAY: Putin vows tough stance on those responsible for deadly airport bomb; Medvedev attacks Domodedovo officials for security ‘chaos’; conjecture as to perpetrators continues; FSB getting off lightly? IOC rebuffs fears for Olympic safety; START approved in lower house of Duma; Georgia’s new Russian language channel; Medvedev promotes political competition; Russia’s heroin problem
Prime Minister Putin has vowed that ‘retribution is inevitable’ for the suicide bombing which took the lives of 35 people at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. Media reports still conflict upon the identities of the bomber(s), with current reports suggesting either a female ‘Black Widow’ bomber accompanied by a man, or a man alone. According the Economist, CCTV footage suggests a male bomber, who ‘intriguingly […] did not have the appearance of a north Caucasian’. Meanwhile the Telegraph says that the two bombers were the product of an Al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan. Tributes have poured in for Ukrainian playwright Anna Mashutina, who died in the explosion as she arrived in Moscow to attend an awards ceremony. The BBC has a round up of reactions to the tragedy from the Russian media, whilst RFE/RL gauges the public reaction with translations of some of the comments left on the websites of RFE/RL and gazeta.ru amongst others.