MAKHACHKALA, Russia — President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday made a surprise visit to the violence-wracked southern province of Dagestan, telling police and security forces to use tougher, “more cruel” measures to fight the “scum” responsible for terrorist attacks.
Russia’s security chief said some terror suspects had been detained.
Twin suicide bombings in Moscow — which Islamic militants from the North Caucasus claim to have carried out — have refocused attention on the violence that for years has been confined to Russia’s predominantly Muslim regions. The rush-hour attacks Monday on the Moscow subway killed 39 people and left nearly 90 hospitalized.
On Wednesday, two suicide bombings in Dagestan killed 12 people, including nine policemen, a frequent target of attacks in part because they represent Russian authority. Another explosion Thursday killed two suspected militants and wounded a third in Dagestan near the border with Chechnya. Police said the men may have been transporting a makeshift bomb.
Medvedev on Thursday copied the style of Russia’s powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin, both in his dress — a black T-shirt under a black suit coat — and his rough language in ordering that much more be done to stop the attacks.
“The measures to fight terrorism should be expanded, they should be more effective, more harsh, more cruel, if you please,” he told federal and local officials in a televised meeting.
Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov, who joined Medvedev in Dagestan, said the organizers of the Moscow attacks have been identified as “bandits” from the Northern Caucasus and some had been detained. He did not give specific numbers.
In recent months, police and security forces have killed at least two high-profile Islamic militants, but they have been unable to capture the veteran Chechen militant Doku Umarov, who has claimed responsibility for the subway attacks.
