A day after a double suicide attack killed 13 rock fans at an outdoor concert here, President Vladimir Putin canceled a foreign trip today and denounced the attack, which authorities have blamed on Chechen rebels, as a “bloody and vile crime” meant to “sow fear, suspicion and ethnic intolerance.” The deadly explosions Saturday afternoon just outside an airfield packed with as many as 40,000 young concertgoers reinforced fears of the capital’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks, and authorities visibly ratcheted up security in response. The day before the attack, Putin had signed a decree setting presidential elections for Chechnya on Oct. 5. Soon after the explosions, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov linked the two events, suggesting that the two female suicide bombers were trying to disrupt elections that Putin says will bring “normalcy” back to Chechnya after nearly a decade of on-again, off-again war. Full Story
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