Suspect in Russia bomb blast identified

By Oleg Shchedrov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian detectives investigating a bus bomb blast which killed eight people said on Thursday they had identified a suspect, amid fears of fresh terror attacks in the run-up to parliamentary elections next month.

Wednesday's attack, which wrecked a passenger bus in the central city of Togliatti and also injured 50 people, came at an uncomfortable time for the Kremlin ahead of the December 2 elections and a presidential vote next March.

The head of the federal investigation committee, Alexander Bastrykin, told Vesti-24 television that detectives had identified a suspect in the blast but did not name the person.

Aluminum wire and nails, similar to those blasted into the bodies of the victims by the explosion, had been discovered during a search of the suspect's apartment, he added.

"We have every reason to believe that this person, willingly or not, performed actions which led to the explosion in the bus," Bastrykin said.

He did not say who might have been behind the blast.

"There can be two explanations: this was either a terrorist act motivated by some reason, not necessarily by nationalism, or a careless handling of explosive substances which could blow up during motion," he told Russian television.

Authorities declared a day of mourning in Togliatti, a car-making city 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of Moscow named after Italian Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti and best known as the home of the Lada car.

Several thousand people gathered for an impromptu rally near the local university, whose students were among the dead.

"Events in Togliatti should not divide us," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin's envoy to the Volga region, Alexander Konovalov, as telling the rally. "We should remain united."

RUMOURS

Hours before that, Konovalov lashed out at authors of rumors that there was more than one explosion in Togliatti on Wednesday and that others could be expected.

"Special services are seriously working to identify the people who spread the rumors," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. "I view them as accomplices to the terrorists."

The blast came just over a month before Russia votes in parliamentary polls widely seen as a referendum on Putin's eight years in power.

Putin says he will leave the Kremlin after his successor is elected in March presidential polls. But he wants his policies, which have brought Russia relative prosperity and stability after the chaotic 1990s, to continue.