Russia to be ‘cruel’ to terrorists

PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit yesterday to the violence-wracked southern province of Dagestan, telling police and security forces to use tougher, “more cruel” measures to fight the “scum” responsible for terrorist attacks.

Russia’s security chief said some terror suspects had been detained.

In his attire – a black T-shirt under a black suit coat – and rough language, Medvedev was following the style of Russia’s powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

Twin suicide bombings this week in Moscow – which Islamic militants from the North Caucasus claim to have carried out – have refocused attention on the violence that for years has been confined to the largely Muslim republics in Russia’s southern corner.

Another explosion yesterday killed two suspected militants and wounded a third in Dagestan near the border with Chechnya.

Police said the men may have been transporting a makeshift bomb.

The day before, two suicide bombings in Dagestan killed 12 people, including nine policemen, who are a frequent target of attacks.

The suicide bombings on the Moscow subway killed 39 people on Monday and have left nearly 90 hospitalised.

Medvedev said much more needed to be done to stop the attacks.

“The measures to fight terrorism should be expanded, they should be more effective, more harsh, more cruel, if you please,” he told local officials in a televised meeting.

Funerals were held yesterday at four Moscow cemeteries for some of the subway victims. At the Khovanskoye cemetery, the family, friends and colleagues of Anna Permyakova, a 34-year-old nurse, placed flowers on her open casket. Permyakova had worked in a rehabilitation centre and many of her former patients attended the funeral in wheelchairs.

Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov, who joined Medvedev in Dagestan, said the organisers of the Moscow attacks have been identified as “bandits” from the Northern Caucasus and some had been detained.

Bortnikov said: “We have detained a number of people, conducted interrogations, got evidence.”

In recent months, police and security forces have killed at least two high-profile Islamic militants, but they have been unable to capture veteran Chechen militant Doku Umarov, who has claimed responsibility for the Moscow attacks.

“We have torn off the heads of the most notorious bandits, but clearly this was not enough. In any case, we will find them all and punish them,” Medvedev said.