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Medvedev, Putin Vow Revenge for Moscow Airport Bombing

VOA News 25 January 2011

Russian leaders on Tuesday vowed to avenge the suicide bombing at Moscow's biggest airport that killed 35 people and injured at least 110 others.

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that those responsible for the Monday attack at the crowded Domodedovo airport "must be liquidated." Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that "retribution is inevitable."

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Both leaders visited bombing victims Tuesday at Moscow area hospitals. The state-run news agency Ria Novosti reports Putin pledged $100,000 to the families of the bombing victims.

Medvedev slammed the security failures that allowed the bomb attack to happen, describing security at the airport as being "in a state of anarchy."

Witnesses say a man carrying a suitcase seen walking into the airport's baggage claim area may have set off the blast. RIA Novosti quotes a law enforcement source as saying a woman might have been accompanying the man and assisted in the explosion.

Russian foreign ministry officials say the blast killed eight foreigners from Kyrgyzstan, Germany, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Britain. Another nine foreign citizens from Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Germany, Slovakia, France and Italy were hospitalized, while two Nigerians were wounded.

One of the dead was identified as British citizen Gordon Cousland, 39. Relatives say Cousland had a six-month-old daughter and was planning to be married in April.

World leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the suicide bombing.

Monday's attack was the worst in the Russian capital since last March when a double suicide bombing killed at least 40 people in the Moscow subway. The two women responsible for those attacks were from Dagestan, a southern Russian region torn by Islamic extremism.

Security procedures at Domodedovo have failed in the past. In 2004, two suicide bombers boarded planes at the airport and blew themselves up in mid-air, killing 90 people aboard the two flights.

Russia is battling an Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region, where there are near daily armed attacks on government and security officials.