Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and Defense Team Send Their Condolences to Victims of Moscow Subway Bombings
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev, and their defense team send their condolences to the families of those killed in subway bombings in Moscow this morning:
"We express our deep condolences to the families of those killed in subway bombings in the Moscow subway this morning. We express our support for all the victims of the bombings."
At least 37 people were killed and 33 wounded on Monday, March 29, when suicide bombers detonated explosives on two packed Moscow metro trains during the morning rush hour. Reuters comments that it is the worst attack in the Russian capital for six years.
The first blast occurred at 7.56 am local time, through the second carriage of a train at Lubyanka metro station, close to the Federal Security Services' headquarters, killing at least 23 people. 40 minutes later, another blast wrecked the second carriage of a train at Park Kultury metro station, killing 14 more people.
Publications worldwide including Reuters, The Moscow Times, and The Wall Street Journal commented that no group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts but suspicion was likely to fall on groups from Russia's North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency.
Quoted in The New York Times, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said: "Two female terrorist suicide bombers carried out these bombings...They occurred at a time when there would be the maximum number of victims." Russian prosecutors said they had opened an investigation. The Financial Times adds that officials said the explosions were likely to have been caused by bombs detonated by mobile telephones.
According to Bloomberg, President Dmitry Medvedev was briefed by Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in Siberia on a working visit, is being kept abreast of developments.
The current death toll makes it the worst attack on Moscow since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 100 on a metro train. Chechen separatists were blamed for that attack.