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The Moscow Times Moscow Guide – Winter 2008

Since the middle of autumn one of the most important topics of discussion, could only be … no, not the financial crisis… New Year! The winter issue of The Moscow Times Moscow Guide is entirely devoted to New Years celebrations. Seven great ideas for celebrating the “Night of Nights” will help readers finalise their plans and choose how and where to party, give fresh ideas and lots of practical advice.

And don’t forget – problems will come by themselves, but happiness and luck need an invitation. That why the more cheerful and light-hearted your celebration of the coming holiday is, the happier and more successful 2009 will be for you.

The Crisis: Signs of a Kremlin Fearful Of Unrest
Sociologist Yevgeny Gontmakher has painted a disturbing picture of what might emerge from the financial crisis, forecasting continued unemployment, huge protests and spreading violence.

Market Matters: Huge Grain Harvest No Boon for Farmers
This year Russia is enjoying the biggest grain harvest it has ever seen -- and farmers couldn't be more worried.



Tuesday, January 06, 2009 Updated at 31 December 2008 22:36 Moscow Time.

The Moscow Times » Issue 4000 » News

Suicide Bomber Fails In Nazran Attack Bid

01 October 2008By Nabi Abdullaev / Staff WriterA suicide bomber on Tuesday attacked the motorcade of Ingush Interior Minister Musa Medov, whom the local opposition has accused of the murder of its leader in August.

The male bomber attempted to ram a Lada hatchback packed with explosives into Medov's convoy in downtown Nazran at 8:20 a.m., but his car exploded before it collided with the minister's armored Mercedes sedan, authorities said.

Medov and his bodyguards were unharmed, while five bystanders were wounded and several houses in the vicinity of the blast were damaged, Ingush prosecutors said, Gazeta.ru reported.

The bomber was killed in the blast, which security experts said was the second suicide bombing in five weeks after a four-year period in which insurgents in the North Caucasus seemed to have abandoned the tactic.

Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the attempted murder of a law enforcement official and illegal weapons trafficking. Ingush chief prosecutor Yury Turygin said investigators managed to take fingerprints from the bomber and were tracking the origin of the car he used, RIA-Novosti reported.

Medov, whom the Ingush opposition often describes as the mastermind behind a brutal crackdown on political and religious dissent, said the attack was perpetrated by "forces that do everything possible to destabilize the situation in Ingushetia and in the whole region."

His vague accusation recalled the language of Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, who recently accused the United States of trying to stir up trouble in the restive republic. Ingushetia is one of the most impoverished and volatile republics in the North Caucasus, where police violence against residents and attacks on the local officials are common.

The Ingush opposition has repeatedly called in vain for Zyazikov's ouster, accusing him of murder, corruption and mismanagement. It has accused Zyazikov and Medov of ordering the killing of opposition leader Magomed Yevloyev, whose relatives have declared a blood feud against the two officials.

Zyazikov's cousin, Bekhan Zyazikov, was killed by unidentified assailants on Sept. 10, but Yevloyev's widow, Zalina, publicly stated that the murder was not part of the blood feud.

The last suicide bombing in the North Caucasus before Tuesday's attack was on Aug. 29, when two men drove a truck loaded with explosives through the fence of an Interior Ministry base in Chechnya, blowing themselves up while killing one officer and wounding 11.

Maxim Agarkov, a Caucasus analyst with the SK-Strategia think tank, said using suicide bombers is not part of the Caucasus tradition of blood revenge.

"This was an ostensibly theatrical attack aimed at demonstrating the weakness of Zyazikov rather than to kill Medov," Agarkov said.

Russia's recent war with Georgia may have revived global Islamist networks' interest in the Caucasus, said Andrei Soldatov, a security and terrorism analyst and founder of the Agentura think tank. The latest suicide bombings in Chechnya and Ingushetia indicate that these terrorist networks may have allocated resources to the largely Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, Soldatov said.