Russia rebels claim dam surge part of economic war
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Chechen rebels claimed responsibility on Friday for a Siberian dam disaster as part of an economic war against Russia, but the Kremlin dismissed the claim and financial markets ignored it.
The claims posted on the unofficial Islamist rebel website www.kavkazcenter.com contradicted experts and officials, who said dilapidated Soviet-era infrastructure was to blame for a water surge at Russia's biggest hydroelectric dam on Monday which killed up to 75 people.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the stricken Sayano- Shushenskaya dam in southern Siberia on Friday, inspecting the damage, speaking to rescue workers and consoling relatives.
"We will replace the iron but we will never replace the people," Putin, dressed in a black suit and showing uncharacteristic emotion, told a news conference. "One cannot even remember when we had an accident on this scale."
Putin gave the clearest official signal so far that the 49 people still missing should be presumed dead, ordering payments of 1 million roubles per person ($31,650) to be paid from the federal budget for those missing and dead.
Near the pool of green sludge that filled the massive hole in the engine room, one worker told Reuters he was on duty when a tower of water ripped through the floor.
"I'm a grown man, but for me it was totally frightening. Thirteen of my friends were in there," he said, declining to give his name as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Putin and other top officials did not comment on the rebel claims of responsibility for the disaster, which were also ignored by Russia's state-controlled media.
A wave of Islamist-inspired violence continued in the country's mainly Muslim North Caucasus.
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In the Chechen capital Grozny, newly rebuilt after two devastating secessionist wars, suicide bombers on bicycles carried out two separate attacks on Friday killing at least four policemen, the republic's Interior Ministry said.
Blood and body parts could be seen near the charred remains of a bicycle and a police car at the site of one of the explosions. A series of bombings have shaken Grozny in recent months, shattering a few years of relative calm following the separatist wars.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ex-rebel turned Kremlin loyalist, said residents were calm and efforts by the authorities to hunt out other "bandits" was successful.
"At the moment we are working on finding the other suicide bombers. I can say that it is going well," he told reporters at the site of one of the attacks.
At the start of the week, Sayano-Shushenskaya, Russia's biggest hydroelectric dam, was crippled by a surge of water through the machine room, destroying three of the dam's 10 huge turbines, drowning dozens of workers and dumping a long oil slick in the Yenisei river. Continued...
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