St Petersburg

St Petersburg Blast And Gibraltar Row

... The Daily Mirror has a photograph of the train with the side of the carriage mangled by one of the blasts and bodies lying on the platform next to it. In its leader, the paper argues that President Putin's violent oppression in parts of Russia, and "indiscriminate" airstrikes in Syria, have fuelled extremism. But it goes on to say that it hopes the Kremlin will not use the attack as an excuse to "clamp down on democratic opponents". Image copyright Reuters. Image caption Tributes were laid for the victims outside the Tekhnologicheskiy Institut metro station. The Sun responds to the continuing controversy about the role Gibraltar might play in Brexit negotiations with the front page headline: "Up Yours Senors!" - a self-referential pun based on the paper's 1990 splash aimed at then-European Commission President Jacques Delors. It is ...

St. Petersburg Subway Bombing Reveals Terror Vulnerability

... have targeted rail before. Europe has been defending against subway bombings for years. • Suicide bombers attacked the Brussels airport and a nearby subway station in March 2016, killing 32 others and injuring dozens. • In Paris in November 2015, suicide bombers and gunmen killed 130 people and injured hundreds at a concert hall, a stadium, restaurants and bars. • In July 2005, suicide bombers killed 52 people in the London Underground and on a double-decker bus. Anthony Roman, a global risk-management expert and president of Roman & Assoc. in Lynbrook, N. Y., told USA TODAY that his staffers, formerly military or Justice Department investigators, found Russian transportation security below par for the Sochi Olympics. “Security was felt to be far below U. S. standards, and wholly inadequate,” Roman said. In general, subways and other train systems are difficult to protect from terrorists because of the large number of entries and large number of people using the ...

St. Petersburg Subway Train Blast Kills At Least 10

... MAYNES, BYLINE: Well, we know that the bombing occurred mid-afternoon in downtown St. Petersburg's Sennaya Ploshchad station. This is right in the center of the city. Initial reports indicated a second explosion in a neighboring station. That now appears to have been smoke carryover from the initial blast. But police say they found another bomb at a third station that failed to detonate. Thus far, we've had - emergency services, of course, are on hand. There's a mass evacuation of passengers. Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin is actually in St. Petersburg right now. He was there this morning for a pro-Kremlin media forum. He expressed condolences to the family and friends of the dead and assured assistance to the injured. And of course, he's looking and talking to security officials from the FSB about the nature of this blast and what's behind it. GREENE: Well, after these incidents, I mean, we're so used to seeing, I mean, this grisly footage from bystanders who, you know, were close by. Are you getting a chance to look at some of that. MAYNES: Yeah. Russia has its sort of own ...

St. Petersburg Isn't Saving Money For A New Tampa Bay Rays Stadium, But Says It Can Help Pay For One

... the city be squirreling away that money to help build a stadium. Mayor Rick Kriseman doesn't seem to think so. If the Rays wish to stay, he said St. Petersburg will be able to help pay for a stadium in much the same way it helped pay to build what is now known as the Trop in 1990: construction bonds financed by the city and the county's tourist tax. The city also has a new funding source it didn't have three decades ago: the future development rights to Tropicana Field. "I'm confident that the financing isn't going to be a challenge," the mayor said. Kriseman wouldn't discuss specifics about financing a new stadium before the team makes its choice. He said he doesn't want to start negotiating in public. But other city officials offered more details. Before the city obligations to the Trop were paid off, county bed taxes, or taxes applied to hotel rooms and short-term rentals, paid the bulk of the debt. In fiscal years 2014 and 2015, bed taxes covered all but $2.4 million of the debt. The city covered its share with a guaranteed stream of state sales taxes. That state sales tax money, called "guaranteed essential resources," was ...

The Likely Culprits Behind The St. Petersburg Bombing

... that have both the capability and the intent to carry out large-scale terrorist attacks in Russian cities. First, there are Chechen separatists who have mounted a wide range of terrorist attacks in Russia. The Russians have been waging wars with these separatists since the 19 th century. Peter Bergen. David Sterman. Leo Tolstoy served in an artillery regiment in the Caucasus and wrote about his experience in "The Cossacks," saying of the Chechens: "No one spoke of hatred for the Russians. The feeling which the Chechens felt, both young and old, was stronger than hatred.". That hatred lingers. In 2002, Chechen militants raided a Moscow theater, where they took hundreds hostage and 130 were killed. Two years later, Chechen militants bombed a metro station in Moscow, killing 39. In 2004, Chechen militants took hundreds of students and others hostage at a school in Beslan. The resultant multi-day siege, which Russia broke with the use of tanks, resulted in more than 300 deaths. Read More. Militants continued such attacks ...

Why Suspicion Over St Petersburg Metro Attack Is Likely To Fall On Islamist Groups

... since a 2011 suicide attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport , which killed 37 people. As of Monday evening, no group had taken responsibility for St Petersburg blast, but given the history of terror attacks in Russia, Islamist groups are likely to come under suspicion. Early terror attacks by Chechens, such as the mass hostage taking at the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow in 2002 or at School Number One in Beslan in 2004, were accompanied by demands for a Russian withdrawal from Chechnya , rather than mass slaughter as their primary goal. Later, the Chechen independence movement renamed itself the Caucasus Emirate, which sought to impose an Islamic state across the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, and drew fighters from neighbouring republics such as Dagestan. The Caucasus Emirate took responsibility for a 2009 train bombing, the 2010 Moscow metro bombings and the 2011 suicide attack at the city’s Domodedovo airport. Doku Umarov, the self-styled emir of the insurgency movement, was ...

St Petersburg Metro Explosion Was 'deafening', Witness Says

... an underground metro tunnel in St Petersburg, in western Russia. At least 11 people died in the explosion , which left dozens more injured. Authorities say it's too early to know whether it was a terror attack. St Petersburg resident Natalya Kirillova was inside the carriage and described hearing a "huge bang". "It was deafening," she said. "Everybody fell to the right. Not down to the floor, but on seats. Video: Passengers try to escape after an explosion on a train in St Petersburg (ABC News). "When we were climbing out the train carriage collapsed, all of it. Everything went black, it started to fall apart and while we were approaching [the station]. "I just thought oh God, please let us reach the station. And then when I looked back there were huge number of people lying on the floor.". As she emerged from the carriage, Ms Kirillova saw bodies. "It was scary. And when we left they took out several people covered in blood," she said. "[There was] a woman, her whole face and nose — all of it was a large massive wound.". Victims were 'blackened', had their clothes burned. Anna Sventik, a St Petersburg resident, was ...

St Petersburg Metro Explosion Suspect 'from Central Asia

... who was in the city when the blast occurred, visited the scene on Monday evening and laid flowers at a makeshift shrine. Russian investigators have described it as a suspected "act of terror" but they have given few details. No group has said it was responsible. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post that the explosion was a "terrorist attack". Image copyright Reuters. Image caption President Putin laid flowers near the scene of the blast. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images. Image caption The badly-damaged train came to a stop at the Tekhnologichesky Institut station. World leaders rallied behind Russia in condemning the blast. The White House said President Donald Trump had spoken to Mr Putin by phone and offered "full support" in bringing those responsible to justice. "Both President Trump and President Putin agreed that terrorism must be decisively and quickly defeated," a statement said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the blast as a "barbaric act" and EU foreign policy chief ...