Investigators perplexed with explosion of Grozny-Moscow train

The organization of the terrorist act on the railway does not have any similarities to Chechen terrorists' activities

Yesterday's explosion of the passenger train traveling from the Chechen capital Grozny to Moscow, has raised many questions with investigation and media. The accident luckily left no victims: the bomb (three kilograms of TNT) exploded in front of the locomotive, not underneath one of the passenger cars. Furthermore, investigators believe that the choice of the place to commit the terrorist act is quite strange too.

According to preliminary results of the investigation, the terrorist act was meticulously planned. Criminals placed the wire to the bomb several days before the explosion. The terrorists were seemingly aware of the fact that Grozny-Moscow trains make a technical stop in the area and then travel further at a low speed of some 10-15 km/h.

Police officers do not think that it was a group of Chechen terrorists, who committed the terrorist act on the tracks. Details of the terrorist act that investigators have been able to find out by now differ from the routine, which Chechen terrorists usually use in their subversive activities. In addition, extremists prefer not to risk their compatriots' lives.

The examination of the explosive mechanism revealed that it was improvised from the materials, which could be found available in any household shop. The construction of the mechanism was not reliable enough: it was different from the type of bombs, which Russian specialists have to deal with in the Northern Caucasus, particularly in Chechnya. If Chechen militants organize a terrorist act, they set a goal to kill as many people as possible. The explosion on the railway was most likely performed with an objective to attract public attention, investigators believe.

Train conductors and several passengers noticed two men running towards the woods after the train veered off the tracks. The Russian Federal Security Bureau is currently checking the version of radical and patriotic organizations that could be probably involved in the terrorist act.

The Sunday accident with the Grozny-Moscow train probably had an objective to detract people's attention from another terrorist act of larger scale. The hostage crisis in Moscow's music theater was preceded with a car explosion near a McDonald's restaurant, for example. Last year's double air crashes in Russia followed a minor explosion on a bus stop, Newsru wrote.

AP photo