Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Russia: Bomber was Kyrgyz transplant
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — A man from Kyrgyzstan who had a Russian passport was responsible for the deadly subway blast in St. Petersburg, Russian and Kyrgyz authorities said Tuesday, as the toll from the attack rose to 14 dead and more than 60 injured.
The Investigative Committee of Russia, the main federal law enforcement agency, identified the bomber as Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, 22. Kyrgyz officials said he was a member of the Uzbek minority in the southern city of Osh who received Russian citizenship in 2011 through his father. He moved to St. Petersburg around that time.
Russian forensic experts found his DNA on a bag left at the Vosstaniya Square subway station, the statement said. A more powerful bomb was discovered there and defused soon after the explosion on Monday afternoon on a train that had just departed another station, Sennaya Square.
The DNA evidence, as well as closed-circuit television footage, led investigators to believe that Dzhalilov had blown himself up and had wanted to bomb the Vosstaniya Square station, the statement said.
There was some indication that Dzhalilov had not acted alone. Russian investigators were seeking a young man and woman from Central Asia, according to some news reports, but there was no official confirmation.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility nor any information linking the suicide bomber to Islamist extremists.
Investigators were trying to piece together where and when Dzhalilov might have become radicalized. One unidentified source told the Interfax news agency that after a trip home in February, Dzhalilov, a car mechanic, returned to St. Petersburg sullen and withdrawn. They believe he might have been recruited then.
Authorities in the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union, which are predominantly Muslim, have said that the Islamic State has recruited hundreds of fighters from the region. The Islamist insurgency in the northern Caucasus has also provided thousands of fighters.
In addition to killing 14 people, the blast Monday wounded 64 others, a St. Petersburg official, Aleksandr Rzhanenkov, said at a news briefing. The wounded included citizens of Belarus, Latvia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, he said, as well as Ukrainians from the embattled eastern region of Donetsk.
Erlan Abdyldaev, Kyrgyz foreign minister, said the investigation would reveal whether the suspect had any ties to radical Islamist movements.
In Osh, a representative of the security services said that Dzhalilov’s family had been questioned, Interfax reported.
According to Russian news reports, the man’s father, who had been working in Russia, moved him to St. Petersburg as a teenager to start working to help pay for a new house after their old neighborhood in Osh had been devastated by ethnic riots.
Neighbors and others interviewed by Russian news outlets said Dzhalilov thrived in Russia, starting out as a metal worker in an auto repair shop and eventually becoming an accomplished mechanic. He went home once or twice a year to visit his mother and younger brother and sister, who had stayed behind.
He did not come to the attention of law enforcement officials except for some unpaid traffic tickets, according to the Interfax report.
St. Petersburg is home to a large diaspora of people from Kyrgyzstan and other ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia, who flee poverty and unemployment in their home countries for jobs in Russia.
While most Central Asian migrants in Russia hold temporary work permits or work illegally, thousands of them have received Russian citizenship in the past decades.
The subway system in St. Petersburg, a city of 5 million that typically is crowded during peak commute hours, looked almost deserted on Tuesday as many residents opted for buses.
“First, I was really scared,” said Viktoria Prishchepova, one who did take the subway. “I didn’t want to go anywhere on the metro because I was nervous. Everyone was calling their loved ones yesterday, checking if they were OK and how everyone was going to get home.”
Monday’s explosion occurred as the train traveled between stations on one of the city’s north-south lines. The driver appeared in front of reporters on Tuesday looking tired but not visibly shaken by the events of the previous day.
Alexander Kavernin, 50, who has worked on the subway for 14 years, said he heard the sound of a blast while his train was running, called security and continued on to the next station as the subway’s emergency procedures prescribe.
“I had no time to think about fear at that moment,” he said.
The decision to keep moving was praised by authorities, who said it helped evacuation efforts and reduced the danger to passengers who would have had to walk along the electrified tracks.
Residents continued bringing flowers to the stations near the site of explosion. Every corner and window-sill at the ornate, Soviet-built Sennaya Square station was covered with red and white carnations on Tuesday.