Free Republic

Security officials in Russia say they have made important breakthroughs in the investigation into the fatal bombing of the Moscow metro.Russian police say video surveillance has revealed the two suspected suicide bombers had accomplices. They are searching for two women and a man seen with the suspected bombers at a metro station outside central Moscow on the morning of the attack. Moscow's Echo radio is also reporting there is new evidence that links the suspects to Chechnya. The station says a private bus driver has confirmed he drove the suspected bombers and a man from the Chechen capital, Grozny, to...

As Russia mourned the 39 commuters who died in Monday’s suicide bombings, speculation mounted over the political consequences for the country. Previous high-profile terror attacks have been followed by political crackdowns. Many believe similar curbs resulting from the blasts on the capital’s underground rail network could endanger the modest democratic reforms announced last year by Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president. Some analysts are referring to the present period as a “thaw” following the more authoritarian rule of Vladimir Putin, president from 2000 to 2008 and now the country’s prime minister. “In Russia a thaw can release forces of chaos which then...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said militants operating on the Afghan-Pakistan border may have helped organise suicide bomb attacks that killed 38 in Moscow on Monday, Interfax news agency reported. Two female suicide bombers attacked Moscow metro stations during the Monday morning rush hour. Both likely had links to the North Caucasus, the centre of an Islamist insurgency against Moscow, the head of Russia's FSB state security service said. Some Russian officials have said that the insurgents in the North Caucasus, which includes Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, have ties to al Qaeda, though many analysts have disputed...