Putin cancels trip after suicide bombings

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled a planned trip to Uzbekistan and Malaysia because of suicide bomber attacks on a Moscow rock festival that killed 15 people, the Kremlin said today.

The Kremlin did not elaborate on Putin’s reasons for stopping the trip, which was to have begun today. But the decision could reflect both concern about how to prevent further terrorist assaults on the capital and lingering sensitivity to previous criticisms that the Russian leader is cold and distant in times of public crisis.