Suspect detained in series of bus stop blasts in Russian city, tied with Islamic extremism

A man has been detained on suspicion of involvement in a series of explosions at bus stops over the past two years in the central Russian city of Voronezh, prosecutors said Thursday.

At least one person was killed and nine wounded in the three blasts, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

The detainee testified that the explosions were organized by Nikolai Kipkeyev, a member of a criminal group called Muslim Society No. 3, who was killed in an explosion outside a Moscow subway station last summer, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the deputy mayor of Voronezh, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Moscow.

Kipkeyev has been tied to Achimez Gochiyayev, who was implicated in the series of 1999 apartment house explosions that shook Moscow and other cities and became one of the Kremlin's arguments for launching a new war in Chechnya, and Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, Interfax said.