Politicians comment on a deadly blast on a Moscow metro train. The explosion happened between the stations Avtozavodskaya and Paveletskaya on Friday morning, killing more than 30 people and injuring about 150 people.
In connection with the incident, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the international community to unite efforts in the fight against terrorism. Mr. Putin made this statement at a meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Friday. For his part, Mr. Aliyev expressed deep condolences to the relatives of those killed in the deadly blast.
Irina Khakamada, a member of the SPS (Union of Right Forces) party who is running for the office of President of Russia, believes that the terrorist attack, coming at the start of the election campaign, is aimed against Vladimir Putin. In her opinion, this attack highlights insecurity caused by the situation in Chechnya. In other words, Chechnya’s settlement process does not guarantee public security. On the other hand, the metro train blast also demonstrated the ineffectiveness of intelligence services, Ms. Khakamada said.
Boris Gryzlov, Chairman of the State Duma, thinks it is necessary to toughen the punishment for terrorist crimes. At his request, “the deputies will revise all the bills related to international terrorism and terrorists shortly”, including the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedural Code. Mr. Gryzlov said Friday’s blast was another attack by international terrorists. According to him, such attacks have recently been staged in a number of foreign countries – Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Mr. Gryzlov said international terrorists did not care about the date and time of their horrible attacks and that their goal is to destabilize the situation in this or that region.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, condemned the terrorist attack in the Moscow metro. He strongly criticized the actions of the Moscow police and the Federal Security Service.
“The Moscow police and the Federal Security Service have been idle over the past several years, while terrorist acts and riots continue in the capital,” Mr. Zhirinovsky said at a meeting of the State Duma on Friday. In his opinion, “riots and terrorist acts will continue up to the presidential elections”. “It may happen that the presidential elections will be the bloodiest,” he noted.
Mr. Zhirinovsky stressed the necessity to tighten migration controls in Moscow. “All student hostels are occupied by illegal migrants, while students have nowhere to live,” he noted. He said it was necessary to take urgent measures and replace both the Moscow police chief and the head of the city’s department of the Federal Security Service.
All politicians are convinced that it is necessary to unite international efforts in the fight against terrorism. Sergey Mironov, Chairman of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, said that “every effort should be made to stop the wave of bloody terror, which spreads across the entire world”. “Another atrocious crime has been committed. At that hour, thousands of Moscovites were on their way to work, metro carriages were packed. The Federal Security Service does not rule out a terrorist attack,” he said. “Again, we see a misanthropic act, confirming that there is nothing more terrible than terrorism today. We should unite and do everything to stop the wave of terrorism,” Mr. Mironov said. He expressed deep condolences to the families of those killed in the attack.
However, despite the bloody attack, the country should continue living. Alexander Veshnyakov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission, said the blast would not disrupt presidential elections. “This won’t work,” he remarked.
Gennady Seleznyov, a member and the former chairman of the State Duma, said it was necessary to tighten security in the Moscow metro. Mr. Seleznyov thinks the blast was the work of terrorists. “What we feared the most, has happened in Moscow today,” he said. Mr. Seleznyov noted that underground terrorist attacks were the most cruel and killed many people because it was difficult to evacuate people. In his opinion, Friday’s incident is connected with the election campaign.
Vladimir Platonov, Chairman of the Moscow City Duma, said the Moscow authorities and the Moscow City Duma were doing their best to support the city’s police and federal security services. He called the metro blast a “horrible tragedy” and noted that terrorist attacks were very hard to prevent. Mr. Platonov stressed that Moscow’s authorities were taking effective measures to ensure the security of people. “We are closing courtyards, entries to buildings, and garrets for non-residents, and we install external surveillance systems,” he said.
For his part, Dmitry Rogozin, a co-chairman of the Rodina (Motherland) bloc, said it was necessary to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Federation Council and discuss whether to declare a state of emergency and postpone the presidential elections. “Today’s terrorist attack in the metro is an attempt to call into question the existence of state power in the country,” he said. In Mr. Rogozin’s opinion, “ethnic crime, maintained by the authorities, is gathering momentum in Moscow and dictates its will”.