Putin says Russia will never give in to terror

As Moscow reeled from twin suicide bombings that killed 15 people at a weekend rock concert, President Vladimir Putin today vowed that Russia would never give in to terrorism.

He also reiterated his claim that the Chechen rebels blamed for the attack are supported by international terrorist groups.

No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but a passport found at the scene reportedly showed that at least one of the two female bombers was a Chechen.

“Today, after the latest series of terrorist acts, we can say that the bandits active in Chechnya are not simply connected with international terrorist organisations, they have become an integral, maybe the most dangerous part, of the international web,” Putin told his Cabinet.

“No country in the world bows to the dictates of terrorists and Russia will not do so either. We must pluck them out from the basements and caves where they are hiding and destroy them.”

The statement echoed the harsh language Putin used as prime minister in 1999, shortly before Russian forces swept back into Chechnya at the start of the second war in the republic in a decade.

The conflict has deteriorated into a bloody stalemate in which Russian forces pound rebel positions with artillery and air strikes while the rebels kill Russians in near-daily hit-and-run attacks.

The bombing of the rock festival was a grim reminder of how the sprawling Russian capital is vulnerable to terrorism.

The bombing brought back painful memories of last October’s raid on a Moscow theatre by scores of Chechen rebels – 129 hostages died, almost all from effects of the narcotic gas that special forces pumped in to end the siege.

Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov declared tomorrow a day of mourning in the city.