Putin raises jail term for making fake bomb threats

Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a law doubling the penalty for false reports of impending explosions or fire to a possible ten years in prison.

Mr Putin pushed through the law yesterday as telephoned bomb threats continue to inundate Russian authorities. Since September, officials have received false bomb reports allegedly targeting more than 3,000 structures in about 180 Russian cities.

The subsequent building evacuations have sometimes caused severe traffic problems.

A senior interior ministry official said last month most of the threats are coming from Syria, where Russian forces are fighting militants opposed to Syrian ruler Bashar al-assad.

One of Moscow’s largest shopping centres was evacuated after a bomb threat yesterday.

And 13 people were injured when a crude home-made bomb exploded in a supermarket in St Petersburg last week in an incident Mr Putin called an “act of terrorism”.